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OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



OUR OLD WORLD 
BACKGROUND 



BY 
CHARLES A. BEARD 

AND 

WILLIAM C. BAGLEY 



Neto gork 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1922 

All rights reserved 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



H 



0^ 



:& 



^i 



Copyright, 1922, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1922. 



Set up and electrotyped by J.S. Gushing Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U. S. A. 



JUN 26 1922 



PREFACE 

This volume completes a series of books for the 
grade schools. The companion works are A First 
Book in American History and The History of the Amer- 
ican People. Although each volume is independent in 
itself, a unity of purpose knits them into one organic 
whole. We have kept always before us the problem 
of giving our boys and girls the best possible civic and 
cultural equipment, and have endeavored to contrib- 
ute something to the solution of that problem. On 
this point we need not add anything to what we have 
said in the prefaces to the companion volumes. 

As to this particular work, the argument for the form 
and subject matter is to be found in the first chapter. 
We have placed it there because we believe that the 
pupils should know why they are called upon to take up 
any line of historical study. 

The importance of European history for the under- 
standing of America has long been recognized by our 
colleges and high schools. The increase in the number 
of courses and books on that subject bears witness to 
the fact. Nevertheless, few attempts have yet been 
made to carry the idea into our grade schools. It is 
true that we have several books bearing some such title 



vi PREFACE 

as ^'A Background of American History," but all of 
them close European history virtually with the foun- 
dation of the American colonies. 

How inadequate is such a treatment of our past ! 
In order to appreciate this inadequacy one has only to 
consider the streams of immigration that have flowed 
into the United States from all parts of Europe since 
the seventeenth century, the influence of European 
literature, especially English, upon our thought, the 
thousand and one relations of the United States to 
Europe since the Declaration of Independence, the par- 
ticipation of America in every general European war 
since 1701, and the commanding position won by our 
country in Europe and the Orient during our own 
time. To cut off European history at the opening of 
the seventeenth century is to depfive the great mass 
of our young citizens of all formal instruction in the 
modern world culture. Even the most superficial sur- 
vey of the situation to-day shows how serious has been 
our neglect of duty in this respect. 

In defense, of course, there may be urged the extreme 
difficulty of presenting the subject of world history to 
grade school pupils. It is far from our thought to min- 
imize that difficulty. It has weighed heavily upon our 
minds all through the preparation of this text. Im- 
pressed, however, by the urgent necessity of the oc- 
casion, we have labored hard to surmount it. As in 
our other books, we have sought to grasp the striking 
and essential ideas and movements of mankind, and 



PREFACE vii 

to present them in clear and simple form. We be- 
lieve that no pupils can go carefully through these pages 
without making important additions to their stock of 
ideas and without enlarging the horizon of their thought. 
We believe that they will all have a firmer grasp upon 
the history of our own country and a better understand- 
ing of their coming duties as citizens of this republic. 

We confess also to having more than a practical pur- 
pose in mind. The charge is often made that Ameri- 
cans are provincial in their outlook. We shall not reply 
by saying that, in our opinion, Europeans are still 
more provincial, or by saying that the American people 
know far more about world history than the mass of 
Europeans know about the history of the other con- 
tinents. Whatever may be the merits in this old dis- 
pute, we have deliberately aimed at helping to make 
Americans less provincial by introducing them early 
to two fundamental ideas : the unity of all history, and 
the importance of enriching our national life by the 
study of the best in all the past and in all nations. 

We are not attempting, therefore, to add another 
course of history to the grade school curriculum, or 
merely to enlarge one already given. We are inviting 
the cooperation of teachers in the pressing task of pre- 
paring the American people, in spirit and in understand- 
ing, for the imposing world destiny to which they are 
called by their enterprise, their wealth, and their power. 
Textbooks alone can do little. They are at best frail 
instruments. The teachers who grasp the idea and 



viii PREFACE 

transmute it into the living word are the masters of 
the field. If our book only aids them in their work 
of carrying American culture to new heights, our re- 
ward will be beyond measure. When they remember 
with Maeterlinck that ''there are no dead," let them 
remember also that all of us shall live forever. All the 
future is in the hands of the present. 

C. A. B. 

W. C. B. 



CONTENTS 

PACK 
CHAPTER 

I. America and the World: Ancient and Modern . i 
j America's Mixed Inheritance. The Changing Back- 

/ ground of American History. The Foreground <)f His- 

tory — America to the Front. Conclusions. 

11. The Early Ages of Mankind . . • ' . ' ^^ 
The Prehistoric Ages — from Stone to Metals. Life 
among Primitive Peoples. The Beginnings of Human 
Society. 
HI. The Great Nations of Antiquity . . . . 42 
The Nations of the Orient. Greece and Rome. Social 
Classes in the Ancient World. The Great Cities of An- . 
tiquity. 
IV. The Culture of the Ancient Nations . . -70 
The Practical Arts. Architecture and Art. Literature 
and Education. Ancient Religions and Christianity. 
V. The Middle Ages: Feudalism and the Church . 112 
Feudalism. The Medieval Church. 

VI. The Arts and Town Life in the Middle Ages . 137 
Architecture, Art, and Learning. Town Life in the 
Middle Ages. 
VII. The Rise of Nations ....... 161 

The Rise and Growth of France. The Rise of Spain. 

The Making of the English Nation. 

VIII. The Growth of World Commerce and Exploration 186 

The Growth of Trade from Early Times. European 

Attention Fixed upon the East. The Service of Science 

and Learning. Navigators, Explorers, and Conquerors. 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

IX. The Protestant Reformation 213 

The Protestant Reformation in Germany. The Protes- 
tant Reformation in England. Results of the Protes- 
tant Revolt. 
X. The Great Political Revolution in England . .238 
The Old Political and Social Classes in England. A 
Century of Revolution. The Results of the Revolutions. 
XL The Rivalry of European Nations . . . .261 

The Commercial Triumph of England. The Conflict 
between England and France in India and North America. 
The Balance of Power in Europe. 
XII. The French Revolution ...... 270 

The Old Order in France. The People Revolt. The 
Napoleonic Wars. 

XIII. The Age of Sjeam and Machinery .... 321 

Steam Power. The Invention of Machinery. The 
Meaning of the Industrial Revolution. 

XIV. Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century . . .354 

Unification of Germany and Italy. Nationalism in 
Eastern Europe. 

XV. The Growth of Democracy 378 

Democracy in France. Democracy in England. Democ- 
racy in Germany. Democracy in Southeastern Europe. 
Rise of Democracy in Russia. Democracy in the Orient. 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 
XVI. The Imperial Rivalry of European Nations . . 407 
Europe in the Orient. European Occupation of Africa. 
European Interest in Latin America. The World War — 
1914-1918. 

XVII. Europe in Our Own Time 444 

The Domestic Affairs of th.^ Nations. International 
Relations. 
XVIII. The Culture of the Modern Age .... 467 
Modern Knowledge. The Idea of Progress and Reform. 
Literature and Art. The Unity of the Modern World. 



LIST OF MAPS 



PAGE 



The World, to Illustrate Chapter I .24 

Ancient Oriental Empires .46 

Ancient Greece 48 

The Roman Empire about 400 a.d. . . ' . . . -53 

Europe about 1200 A.D. (in colors) .... facing 116 

Trading Centers in the Middle Ages 152 

The Empire of Charlemagne 164 

France in the Fifteenth Century 167 

Egbert's Kingdom I73 

England under William the Conqueror I75 

The Age of Discovery 203 

European Settlements in America 226 

Era of the Reformation 237 

Chief European Rivals ......... 263 

Europeans in the Orient ......... 271 

British and French Rivals in North America 274 

Western Europe in the Seventeenth Century 277 

Europe about 1810 312 

European Railways . . 347 

Europe in 1815 . . . 357 

Nationalities in Austria-Hungary 37i 

Central Europe in 1871 39^ 

Japan and China 4°° 

Africa 41 5 

The Caribbean Region 4^8 

South America . . . , . . . . • .421 

Europe after the World War (in colors) .... facing 436 



OUR OLD WORLD 
BACKGROUND 



CHAPTER I 

AMERICA AND THE WORLD: ANCIENT AND 
MODERN 

There is no scene in all American history, there is no 
great name upon our roll of heroes, there is no book 
upon our shelves that does not awaken memories of 
Europe. 

Is it Washington triumphant over the British army 
at Yorktown ? Lo ! we behold the French general, 
Lafayette, at his side. We know that the French 
fleet is riding in the harbor and we remember that 
our minister, Benjamin Franklin, has been pleading 
America's cause at the court of the French king. 

Is it a humbler scene ; for example, a May-day 
picnic in Central Park in New York City ? There 
we see children of English, Irish, Italian, Jewish, 
German, Scandinavian, and other national origins — 
Americans all — playing about a high stone shaft, an 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



Egyptian obelisk, more than three thousand years 
old, brought all the way across the sea to adorn a city's 

playground ! 

Is it a home scene with the 
family gathered around the 
lamp in the evening ? The 
books and magazines on the 
table may be in any one of a 
dozen languages and the news 
in the paper is gathered from 
the corners of the earth. The 
conversation may be about 
memories of the countries in 
the Old World from which 
the parents or grandparents 
came, or it may be about the 
latest events in London, Rome, 
Moscow, or Berlin. 

Is it a mothers' meeting in a 
modern city school to discuss 
with the teacher the education 
of their children ? Many races 
are certain to be represented 
and the customs of many lands 
are sure to be compared. 

Search high and low, far and 
wide, throughout the length and breadth of America, and 
you will see the truth in the saying : '' The history of 
America is the history of Europe in the New World." 




Counesu of MtlruiJjlUan \Iu:,tuiH of 
Art, j\ew York 

The Central Park Obelisk in 
Its Egyptian Home 



AMERICA AND THE WORLD 



Take the character of a great American, Abraham 
Lincoln, as another illustration. His parents were of 
English origin, his tongue was English, and his early 
religious training was 
that of a Christian 
denomination which 
was founded in Eng- 
land. 

Consider his edu- 
cation. As a farmer's 
boy, he was accus- 
tomed, on winter 
nights, to lie upon 
the floor before the 
hearth and pore over 
his books in the light 
of the blazing fire. 
In those quiet hours 
he was, without 
knowing it, preparing 
himself to teach and 
lead this nation in a 

time of great trouble. In the little library from which 
he gathered wisdom and understanding, were eight 
books. Three of them were by American writers. 

Five of them were from other lands. First among 
these was the Bible, one of the oldest books of the 
world. For hundreds and hundreds of years, the 
Bible had been read in many languages and had in- 




A Monument to Lincoln in London 



4 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

fluenced the lives of countless millions of people. 
Another one of Lincoln's books was Aesop'^s Fables, 
a collection of stories said to have been made by a 
Greek writer five hundred years before the birth of 
Christ. The stories themselves were still older. Some 
of them have even been traced back to ancient Egypt. 
Lincoln also had The Arabian Nights, '' a thousand and 
one " marvelous tales that had come down from the 
earliest days of Persia, Arabia, and India. His other 
books were by English writers. One was Pilgrim's 
Progress, by the famous preacher, John Bunyan, who 
based it all upon the Bible. The other was Robinson 
Crusoe, written in 1719 by Daniel Defoe. 

Lincoln was a true American ; but who can say 
from what ancient times and distant lands came the 
ideas that guided him and the hopes that inspired him t 
America gave him opportunity ; the Old World gave 
him an inheritance so great that the human mind can 
scarcely measure it. Of nearly all Americans, as of 
Lincoln, it may be said : " The Old World is their 
motherland and teacher." 

America's Mixed Inheritance 

The People. From the very beginning of American 
history, many races have played a part. With the pass- 
ing years, the number of different peoples coming to 
our shores has increased. John Cabot, whose voyage 
gave the king of Enj^land a claim to North America, 



AMERICA AND THE WORLD 



5 



was an Italian {A First Book in American History, 
pp. 26-29) • O^^ o^ ^^^ American colonies, New Nether- 
land (New York), was founded by the Dutch, and 
another, Delaware, by the Swedes. Even in those 




Keyvtone View Co., Inc. 



The Mayflower 



colonies founded by the English, there were also to be 
found Welsh, Germans, Irish, Scotch, French, and 
Jews. Although English became the language of the 
land, the nation was not to be wholly English in blood. 
In time, the descendants of the original English were 



6 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



outnumbered by other races. Moreover, the English 
blood itself had become mixed with that of many 
nationalities. Theodore Roosevelt, certainly an Amer- 
ican of the first rank, boasted that among his ancestors 
were Dutch, English, Scotch, Irish, and Germans. 
Our Language. Although English is the language 

of the American people, it is 
made up of and mixed with 
words from many tongues, 
especially Greek, Latin, and 
French. Of Latin origin are 
nearly all our words about 
government, such as presi- 
dent, senate, Sind' constitution. 
From the Greek come a great 
number of terms used in the 
schools, such as geography 
and physiology. Most of 
our scientific words are of 

Cicero, the Roman Orator 

telegraph, for mstance, means 
in Greek simply **to write from a distance." Some 
people say that it is better to use short and simple 
words of English origin. Doubtless this is wise 
wherever possible, but even by the greatest effort one 
can hardly avoid using words taken from other lan- 
guages. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address shows how many 
Latin words crept into the language of a man who was 
accustomed to use the purest English. 




AMERICA AND THE WORLD 7 

Our Government. We have learned much from 
Europe, especially England, about how to govern 
ourselves. When the English founded the thirteen col- 
onies in America, they provided that each one should 
have a legislature to make the laws, a governor to 
enforce them, and judges to explain and apply them. 
When the colonies became independent states, they 
kept these three branches of government. This is 
the origin of our state government of to-day. Changes 
have been made, of course, but the Important parts 
remain. The idea of government by elected officers, 
instead of kings alone, came to America from England. 

Our federal government, or union of the states, 
however, was created by the Americans themselves. 
It was planned by a convention of citizens who met at 
Philadelphia in 1787 {First Book, pp. 149-154). Among 
them were George Washington, James Madison, and 
Alexander Hamilton. 

In drawing up the plan of the federal government, 
these men thought a great deal about governments 
of other countries and other times. James Madison, 
for example, studied carefully the history of the ancient 
world, as well as of England, before he even went to 
the convention. His notebooks have been kept and 
can be read to-day. Other delegates were familiar 
with the history of Greece, Rome, and England. 
Again and again they spoke of the governments of 
these countries and tried to profit from the lessons of 
olden times. 



8 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

For example, one member of the convention said 
that at the head of the American government there 
should be three officials, instead of one President. At 
once another member replied : '' One man will be more 
responsible than three. Three will contend among 
themselves until one becomes the master." He pointed 
out how this very thing had happened in ancient Rome 
when that country was governed by three men called 
a triumvirate. On other important points the lessons 
of Greece were cited. As the members of the conven- 
tion were nearly all of English descent, they naturally 
spoke often of things to be learned from the history 
of England. 

Our Civilization. Religion, The Christian religion, 
which is the faith of most of the American people, 
arose in Palestine on the distant shores of the Medi- 
terranean Sea two thousand years ago. Of the many 
branches of the Christian Church in the United States, 
all except a few were founded in the Old World. 
The Jewish religion also came from Palestine. 

Books. Of the books studied in our schools or read 
in our homes, very many are of foreign origin. The 
English poet, Shakespeare, and the English novelist, 
Dickens, are in most private libraries. In our high 
schools, pupils study the Latin language and learn to 
read the writings of the Romans, Caesar and Cicero. 
American writers often follow foreign models. Daniel 
Webster {First Book, pp. 284-288), perhaps our greatest 
orator, constantly studied the speeches of Greek and 



AMERICA AND THE WORLD 



Roman orators. Our first poets and novelists imitated 
European examples. They wrote of knights and ladies, 
kings and princes, as if there were nothing in America 
to write about. Very 
slowly did American 
writers venture to choose 
American people and 
scenes for their novels, 
poems, and dramas. 

Schools. American 
schools and colleges, at 
first, were like those in 
Europe. The first teach- 
ers came from the Old 
World. The first text- 
books were written and 
printed in Europe. It 
was a long time before 
school children had ge- 
ographies, spellers, and 
histories printed in Amer- 
ica. Thomas Jefferson, founder of the University of 
Virginia, got many of his ideas of education from 
France. 

Science and Invention. Although Americans have 
themselves invented many wonderful machines, a 
great deal of our knowledge about such matters 
came from across the sea. Spinning and weaving 
are even older than the oldest nation on the earth. 




A Monument to Shakespeare 
IN New York 



lO 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



The Egyptians mapped the heavens and began the 
science of astronomy. The compass was invented 
long before the day of Christopher Columbus. The 
first printing press was built almost two hundred years 
before the English landed at Jamestown. The steam 




Metropolitan Museum 



An Ancient Egyptian Map of the Stars 

engine, as a working machine, came from England. 
Electricity was known to the Greeks. In fact, it was 
by using knowledge from the past that Americans 
were able to make astonishing progress and to give to 
the world the reaper, the telegraph, and the tele- 
phone. If you will read the lives of our inventors 
you will find that they began where other inventors 
left off. 



The Changing Background of American History 

The Expansion of Europe. In speaking of our 
inheritance from the Old World, we must remember 
that, through all the years of our history, Europe 
itself has been changing too. When Columbus set 



AMERICA AND THE WORLD II 

out upon his daring voyage, Europeans knew nothing 
of the Western Hemisphere and Httle of Asia. They 
had no colonies. Their trade was mainly among 
themselves. 

During the four centuries that have passed since 
then, Europeans have spread to all parts of the earth. 
In some instances, they have swept away the natives 
and founded new states, as in the case of Canada 
and Australia. In other instances, they have mingled 
with the natives and mixed Old World ideas with theirs. 
This is what the Spanish did in Mexico, Central and 
South America, and many islands of the seas. In 
still other places, the Europeans made themselves 
rulers over natives. In this way, the British built 
up their vast empire in Asia and in Africa. So, too, 
the French, the Germans, the Belgians, and the Italians 
formed their empires In Africa, bringing millions of 
the natives under their flags. Thus it happened that, 
between 1492 and our day, all of North America and 
South America, nearly all of Africa, all of Australia, 
and huge portions of Asia fell under the sway of Euro- 
peans. 

The Awakening of the Orient. Where the Europeans 
have not conquered, they have shaken other races 
out of their old ways of living. They have forced 
them or Induced them by example to adopt European 
Ideas of government, trade, and war. This Is what 
happened in the case of China and Japan. These 
countries are older in civilization by thousands of 



12 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

years than either England or France, but it was under 
the influence of Europeans and Americans that they 
adopted gunpowder, the steam engine, the railway, 
the factory, and many ideas of democratic government. 

Under European influence, the Japanese created a 
parliament elected by voters and established daily 
newspapers. It was not until about 1855 that Japan 
opened her doors to the world, but within fifty years 
she had rapid-fire guns, railways, factories, and vast in- 
dustrial cities of her own. Within fifty years she defied 
one of the most powerful nations of Europe, Russia, 
and defeated her on the field of battle. Having all the 
inventions of the West, from steam engines to battle- 
ships, she is now the first power in the Far East. 

During the same period, the Chinese cut off their 
queues and put on trousers. They threw off the rule 
of their ancient imperial family and tried to found a 
republic. So the slumbering giants of the East have 
been stirred from their long sleep, and stand alert and 
ready for coming events. They are Europeanized. 

The Trade of Europe. While conquering by the 
sword and arousing natives by their enterprise, the 
Europeans have spread their trade everywhere. There 
is not a nook or cranny of this old earth that they have 
not visited with their wares. They trade and bargain 
with the dusky Eskimo of the frozen North, the 
swarthy African of the tropics, the wandering Arab of 
the desert, as well as with the civilized people of 
every clime. 



AMERICA AND THE WORLD 13 

Whether It Is the port of Hongkong In distant China, 
La Paz twelve thousand feet high in the mountains 
of Bolivia, or Libreville under the blazing sky of Africa, 
the Europeans are there with their goods to sell. The 
Turks dozing away In Anatolia, the nomad tribes- 
men of Persia lolling in their tents, are aroused by the 
call of the European merchant who cries abroad his 
wares and offers to buy in exchange. The ships that 
dock at Liverpool, Boulogne, and Hamburg come from 
every country that borders on the sea and every climate 
under the shining sun. 

In addition to trading with the peoples of every 
land and race, the Europeans lend them money to 
build railways, factories, and telegraph lines. Eng- 
land alone has lent five billion dollars to Asiatics and 
Africans. French bankers have lent billions to Egyp- 
tians, Turks, Brazilians, Africans, Chinese, and in fact 
all the other peoples of the earth. 

Wherever we go on the broad surface of the globe, 
we meet Europeans and see the signs of their work. 
The geography of Europe remains the same. The 
same seas wash the coasts of France and Spain as in 
the days of Columbus. But the civilization of Europe 
has spread all over the world. There is no ocean 
that Is not plowed by European merchant vessels 
and battleships. There is no port that they have not 
visited. There Is no people that they have not stirred 
to new thought and action. The European background 
of American history has become a world background. 



14 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

The Foreground of History — America to the 

Front 

American Influence on Europe. Great is the debt 
of Americans to the old yet ever changing Europe ; 
but we must not forget that there is another side to 
the story. From the day that Captain John Smith 
set foot on the shores of Virginia to the day that General 
John Pershing set foot on the shores of France, there 
was not an hour in which European statesmen did 
not have to reckon with America. 

American Government. The American example of 
a people governing themselves without kings and 
nobles was always before the people of Europe. French 
soldiers, like Lafayette, who came over to aid Wash- 
ington in the American Revolution (First Book, pp. 
141-142), carried back with them American ideas 
about government. A few years later they helped to 
overthrow the French king in the great French Revolu- 
tion which broke out in 1789. The state constitutions 
which the Americans drew up for themselves after 
1776 were translated into French. They were spread 
broadcast and read in every European country. 

Books about America. Able men and women from 
Europe visited America and studied our ways of 
living, working, and governing. They wrote books 
about the things they saw, and European people read 
these accounts. In 1744 Peter Kalm, a German, 
published the story of his travels in America for the 



AMERICA AND THE WORLD 



IS 




l6 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

benefit of the German people. In 1786 a French noble- 
man published for his countrymen an interesting 
book about the new American republic. Years after- 
wards, in 1835, a still abler Frenchman, Alexis de 
Tocqueville, issued a work, entitled Democracy in 
America, which set all Europe thinking. A little later 
a thoughtful Englishwoman, Harriet Martineau, printed 
a volume on America for her fellow citizens to read. 
If we should give here a list of important European 
books about America it would fill ten or fifteen pages 
of this little volume. 

Influence of Immigrants. It was not only the 
writers who carried back to the Old World American 
ideas. Thousands of immigrants from all parts of 
Europe, after living here for a while, returned home 
to visit or to stay. They told their neighbors how 
people lived and worked in America. The millions 
who did not go back to their native lands wrote letters 
to their families and friends across the sea. In this 
way they put American ideas into European heads. 
There are no scales in which to weigh the influence 
of all these things on European life ; but we know that 
Europe became a different Europe on account of 
America. 

American Trade with the World. Since the early 
days of American history the well-being and prosperity 
of millions in Europe have depended upon the produce 
drawn from American fields and plantations. Owing 
to wheat and corn from America, Europeans had 



AMERICA AND THE WORLD 17 

more bread to eat. The vast cotton spinning and 
weaving industry of England, employing millions of 
people, was for a long time almost entirely supplied 
with raw cotton from our Southern states. Whenever 
a war stopped the flow of raw materials to Europe, 
the people of Europe suffered, as well as American 
farmers and planters. 

Within recent times, Americans have been sending 
large quantities of manufactured goods abroad. There 
are few distant countries that do not use our reapers, 
sewing machines, and typewriters. Our merchants are 
to be found in all the great cities of the world advertis- 
ing and selling manufactured goods. European busi- 
ness men find them shrewd and energetic in the search 
for customers. 

The Growth of American Territory. In addition to 
spreading their trade far and wide throughout the 
world, Americans have also carried their flag to distant 
lands. Alaska came under our control in 1867. The 
United States now holds Porto Rico and the Virgin 
Islands in the West Indies. It owns the canal strip, 
or zone, across the Isthmus of Panama. Cuba, Haiti, 
Santo Domingo, and Nicaragua are under American 
protection. 

The American flag has been planted in the Pacific. 
It waves over the Hawaiian Islands, over a part of 
the Samoan group, over Guam, and over several other 
small islands. Since 1898 it has floated over the 
Philippine Islands near China and Japan. So the 



1 8 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

United States has territory in the same regions as the 
English, French, and Dutch. Anything important that 
happens in Asia becomes a matter of interest to America. 
The United States has indeed become a '' world power." 

America in the Wars of the Old World. Europe 
has had many wars in which nearly all the great nations 
have taken part. During the past two hundred years 
there has not been one of these " general " wars in 
which America has not joined in one way or another. 

In colonial times, when England and France were 
struggling for the mastery in North America {First 
Book^ pp. 83-101), the American colonies were drawn 
into the quarrel. 

Even after winning their independence, Americans 
could not keep out of European conflicts. The long 
war from 1793 ^o 1815, in which France and England 
took the lead, interfered with American trade. Ameri- 
can citizens took sides and thus the quarrel in Europe 
stirred up a quarrel here {First Book, pp. 154-160). 
French and English warships captured our goods and 
ships at sea. The English stopped and searched our 
vessels for English-born sailors. If they found any, 
they took them off. For a long time our government 
did not know what to do. Finally, in 1812, it declared 
war upon England {First Book, pp. 1 81-194). 

A hundred years later, when Europe was at war 
again, the United States was deeply stirred by the 
contest. At length, it threw its sword into the scale, 
helping to put an end to the German empire {First 



AMERICA AND THE WORLD 19 

Book, pp. 439-449). In other parts of the world the 
power of American armies had already been felt. Even 
an uprising in distant China, in 1900, led our govern- 
ment to join with the governments of Europe in putting 
down a native rebellion {First Book, pp. 380-384). 
So American ideas, American trade, and American 
arms are powerful factors in the affairs of the world. 

American Relations with European Countries. In 
all the troublous times of our history, Americans 
have looked to Europe for counsel and aid. Within 
two years after the Declaration of Independence, the 
United States made an alliance with France {First 
Book, pp. 136-143). It even drew Holland and Spain, 
as well, into the contest against King George III. 

When the Civil War burst upon our country. 
President Lincoln and President Davis both turned 
at once to the countries of Europe to see which side 
they would favor. The South even hoped that England 
and France would aid it against the North. Long 
afterward, in 1899 and 1907, the Czar of Russia, 
hoping to put an end to all war, called conferences at 
The Hague. The United States sent able delegates 
who played a leading part in those debates. In our 
time, after the defeat of Germany in 1918, President 
Wilson went to Paris to speak for our government in 
the conference that sought to settle the disputes between 
nations. 

The Climax in American Power. From the World 
War, America emerged the richest and most powerful 



20 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

nation on the earth. Once it borrowed money and 
bought its manufactured goods in Europe. Now Eng- 
land, France, Russia, and Italy owe the United States 
billions of dollars. Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, and 
even European cities borrow American money to pay 
their bills. 

American business and industrial concerns have 
established branches in every leading European and 
Asiatic city. In one of the public squares of Paris, 
where stands a great monument to the warrior. Napo- 
leon, are to be found the offices of two of America's 
richest banking houses. Kingsbridge, a famous street 
in London, is almost lined with the displays of American 
merchandise. A former Chicago boy owns the largest 
department store in the capital of King George. 

Once America depended mainly upon English ships 
to carry her goods over the seas. Now America has 
a splendid merchant marine of her own and American 
captains steam into the ports of Egypt for cargoes of 
cotton destined for the spinning mills of England. The 
sun that follows the British empire around the world 
finds everywhere signs of American energy and Ameri- 
can power. 

The grand climax came in 192 1 when, on the call 
of President Harding, the leading naval and military 
powers of the world sent delegates to a conference in 
Washington to consider ways of peace. What a 
sweep is this from the tiny colonies of Jamestown and 
Plymouth to the mighty nation that has now become 



AMERICA AND THE WORLD 21 

the center of the world ! What a heritage we have ! 
What grave duties the possession of such power lays 
upon the people of this nation ! 

Conclusions 

1. The background of American history is not 
the history of the Indians who inhabited this con- 
tinent before the Europeans came. 

2. It is not merely the history of Europe down to 
the founding of the English colonies in America. 

3. The background of American history is in very 
truth the history of the world down to the landing of 
the last boatload of immigrants on our shores and 
the sailing of the last ship from an American port for 
some distant land. 

4. The important events of every day in all parts 
of the world are matters of concern for American 
citizens. Busy in their fields, shops, and homes, they 
may not think so, but it is true. The United States 
has ties binding it to every section of the globe in 
peace and war. American trade is carried on in all 
markets. American business men vie with those 
of Europe in hunting for new oil lands, coal fields, 
and iron mines in far-off countries. There is always 
danger that war in Europe may summon American 
boys from farm and shop to fight and die on land or 
sea. In fact, the graves of American soldiers and 
seamen are already scattered among the battlefields 
of many lands. 



22 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

5. That nation is greatest which gathers the best 
from all times and all countries, improves upon its 
heritage, and makes the noblest use of its powers and 
talents at home and abroad. 

It is not enough, therefore, for American citizens 
to study the history of our country alone. It is not 
enough to know about American ideals and achieve- 
ments. To understand how our nation came to be 
what it is, and to serve it wisely, we must study the 
history of the wide world of which it is a part. We 
must even learn about our earliest ancestors and 
their long and toilsome way upward from barbarism 
to civilization, from ignorance to knowledge. 



Questions and Exercises 

I. I. How many Old World countries are represented among 
the pupils of your schoolroom ? Let each pupil find out from 
what country or countries his fam^ily originally came. Make a 
list of these countries and locate them on the map. 2. Read 
the newspapers to learn from what Old W^orld countries news is 
reported. Let two or three pupils read different papers each day 
if possible, and make reports. At the end of a week make a list 
of the countries from which news is rriost frequently reported. 
Locate these countries on the map, and think of reasons why news 
from them is of interest to Americans. 3. Which of the books 
named on p. 4 have you read in whole or in part .? 

IL I. What is meant by the statement that Japan and China 
have been "Europeanized" ? Tell what you know about the way 
in which the Japanese and Chinese have lived in the past. How 
did their way of living differ from the way in which Europeans 



AMERICA AND THE WORLD 23 

and Americans have been living ? 2. American merchants who 
sell goods in South America, in Africa, or in Asia must compete 
with European merchants; what does "compete" mean? Why- 
is it well to know something of the history of the peoples with 
whom we compete in trade? 3. In your geographies you will 
find pictures of cities in Asia, Africa, and South America ; study 
these pictures to find out what European influences they show. 
For example, in what ways do the buildings, the streets, and the 
dress of the people show that " the civilization of Europe has spread 
all over the world" ? What things do you notice in these pictures 
that seem not to have been affected by European civilization ? 

III. I. What are the chief differences between a republican 
form of government and a monarchy? The United States was 
the first great modern republic. What European country first 
followed the example of the United States in becoming a republic ? 
W^hat European countries have lately changed from monarchies to 
republics ? 2. How did troubles in Europe afi"ect America in the 
French and Indian War ? In the War of 1812 ? Why have great 
European wars had so great an influence on our country ? Why 
would it probably be even more difficult in the future for our 
country not to become involved in any great war that might break 
out in the Old World ? What steps has our government taken to 
prevent future wars in the Old World? 3. What is meant by 
the "territorial expansion" of our country? Name and locate 
the important possessions of the United States outside of North 
America. 4. Make a list of the most important ways in which 
our country has influenced the Old World in the past. 5. Study 
the newspapers to learn in what ways the United States is now 
influencing the Old World. 

IV. I. Tell why the history of the Indians who lived in 
America before the time of Columbus, even if they had left a his- 
tory, would not be the history of the American people. 2. Give 
as many reasons as you can to show why every American citizen 
should know something of Old World history. 




24 



AMERICA AND THE WORLD 25 

Geographical Studies 

Study carefully the map on the opposite page. Most of the 
countries that we shall study about in this book are in Europe. 
Compare Europe with Asia and Africa as to size. Note how broken 
or irregular the coast line of Europe is as compared with the coast 
line of Asia or Africa. Name the principal seas, gulfs, and bays 
of Europe. In what ways have these been of advantage to the 
European peoples .? A number of cities and countries are men- 
tioned in this chapter; locate all of these on the map. 



CHAPTER II 
THE EARLY AGES OF MANKIND 

Many an American farmer boy, while strolling along 
a river bottom or plowing a field, has picked up stone 
arrowheads or stone hatchets that were made long 
ago by American Indians. Such weapons have been 
found in nearly all parts of the United States. They 




Courtesy of American Museum of Natural History, New York 
Rude Stone Implements 

tell us of human beings who lived in a crude and sav- 
age condition, without a knowledge of metals, without 
strong, well-lighted houses, without the comforts and 
the tools that make it so much easier for people to 
live and work to-day. 

Now it is an interesting fact that such stone weapons 

have been found also in other parts of the world ; 

26 



THE EARLY AGES OF MANKIND 27 

indeed, in nearly every country. In Europe and Asia, 
however, they are not usually found near the surface 
of the ground. There they have been buried deep 
by drifting sand and by the ruins and rubbish left 
by many generations of people who had learned to 
use metals and had quit making stone weapons. By 
studying these stone weapons and the bones and various 
things found with them in rubbish heaps, scholars 
have learned much about the way people lived long 
ago before the invention of writing made written 
records possible. The long period before the inven- 
tion of writing is known as the prehistoric ages, '' pre " 
being the Latin word for '' before." 

The Prehistoric Ages — from Stone to 
Metals 

The Old Stone Age. For many long centuries, 
all mankind lived very much as the North American 
Indians lived before white men came to this continent. 
In France and elsewhere in Europe, there have been 
discovered deep caves which had been closed for 
thousands of years. In these caverns, the bones of 
human beings have been found and, along with them, 
the bones of animals, like the woolly rhinoceros and 
the mammoth, that do not exist to-day. In these 
caverns, as well as in sand banks, there have been 
unearthed many rude implements made of stone. 
Owing to the fact that the implements found at the 
very bottom of these caves and sand banks were 



28 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



scarcely more than rude flakes and chunks of stone, 
historians speak of the earliest part of the prehistoric 
period as the Old Stone Age. How long it lasted we 
do not know. 

The New Stone Age. In the upper layers of the 
rubbish in caves and in river drift were found better 
and better tools in ever greater 
variety ; hence the term, New Stone 
Age. Progress among primitive 
people was slow, very slow ; but 
there was some advancement. The 
crude way of chipping stone was im- 
proved. Axes, spearheads, and 
arrowheads came to be made of 
stone that could be highly polished 
and brought to a sharper edge or 
finer point. In addition to weap- 
ons, there were bone needles, frag- 
ments of pots, scrapers, flint knives, 
and other things used in making 
clothing and preparing food. 
Natural History Museum The BroHze Age. Thc Ncw Stone 

A Polished Flint ^^^ gradually merged iutO what is 

called the Bronze Age. As primitive people became 
more and more expert in making stone implements, 
they began to take note of the diflPerences among 
stones of various kinds. Whenever they discovered a 
new kind of stone, they doubtless tried to see what 
they could do with it. 




THE EARLY AGES OF MANKIND 



29 



Now it happens that one of the few metals that is 
found in a state which permits immediate use is copper. 
In their hunts for useful stones, primitive people found 
chunks of copper and learned that it was malleable ; 
that is, it could be pounded into various shapes. 
They found also that they could polish it by rubbing 




Early Stone Hammers 



Natural History Museum 



It hard. As they loved to adorn themselves, they 
made ornaments of this shining metal. Since it was 
not very hard, however, it was not a good substance 
for axes and spears. The edge of copper would not 
keep its sharpness. 

In their search among the stones, primitive people 
also found another metal, tin. After a long time, 
they discovered that by melting tin and mixing it 
with copper they could make a hard alloy, called 
bronze. Then they had a metal that could be hardened 



30 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



and polished and given a keen and lasting edge. It 
could be used for making tools, weapons, sheets of 
metal, pots, kettles, and many other useful things. 
This marked a wonderful advance in manufacture. 



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An American Indian Iron Fc 



The Iron Age. Late in the prehistoric period, 
primitive people discovered the most wonderful metal 
of all, iron. This was still harder than bronze and 
could be worked up almost as easily into weapons, 
tools, and utensils. When mankind reached this stage 



THE EARLY AGES OF MANKIND 3 1 

— the Iron Age^ — it was well on its way toward 
settled and civilized life. 

The Ages Overlap. In trying to picture to our- 
selves these long stages through which mankind passed 
in prehistoric times, we must keep some things firmly 
in mind. First, the ages overlapped even among the 
same races ; that is, they did not pass suddenly from 
one to the other. Secondly, different races passed 
through these ages at different times. Thirdly, some 
races skipped one or more of them. For example, 
the North American Indians were in the Stone Age when 
Columbus discovered the New World. They did not 
pass slowly upward through the Bronze and Iron Ages. 
They got tools, weapons, and cooking utensils from the 
white man, and leaped all at once, so to speak, into 
the age of iron and steel. So it has been with many 
other primitive peoples. Even in modern times, how- 
ever, there have been discovered some races that have 
advanced no farther in civilization than the cave 
dwellers of Europe who lived more than five thousand 
years ago. 

Life among Primitive Peoples 

The Sad Plight of the Earliest People. One of the 

most interesting stories of all past ages is that which 
tells of primitive peoples beginning their long and 
toilsome struggle upward from savagery. Born into 
a world which they did not understand, they were 



32 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



face to face with terrible foes — cold, hunger, thirst, 
tempest, and wild beasts. They had to find for them- 
selves food, clothing, and shelter ; yet for this task they 
were far worse oif than Robinson Crusoe when he was 
thrown upon a lonely island. Crusoe had saved many 




An Early Lake Dwelling 



Natural History Museum 



tools from the wrecked ship, and he had a knowledge 
of many other things which he did not actually possess. 
This knowledge enabled him to make clothing, build 
a suitable shelter, tame goats, plant grains, and culti- 
vate fields. 

The first peoples, on the other hand, had no tools, 
no knowledge of grains, no domestic animals, no iron 



THE EARLY AGES OF MANKIND 



33 



forges. But they had to live ; so they began to use 
their brains in two ways. First, they protected them- 
selves against the elements — heat, cold, and storm. 
Secondly, they tried to understand the resources of 
nature and to provide themselves with food. Fortu- 
nately they had a 
friend, as well as a 
foe, in nature. They 
found shelter in caves 
and food in the forests 
and streams. As they 
made discoveries, 
they added to their 
knowledge. They 
began to build shelter 
and to grow food. 
Each step they took 
carried them farther 
along the way. 

Men, the Hunters 
and Warriors. In this 
upward struggle, 

there was a division of labor between the men and 
the women. Men became the hunters of animals 
for food and skins and the protectors against en- 
emies. They killed game in the forests and streams. 
They fought wild beasts and their own savage kind. 
Thus they became skillful in the arts of the chase and 
warfare. They made weapons of all kinds. In their 




Natural History Museum 
Rude Drawings on the Wall of a Cave 



34 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

leisure hours, they polished and decorated their spear 
handles and bows. Sometimes they drew, on the 
walls of their caves, pictures of the animals they had 
hunted. They became artists after a fashion. Their 
eyes and ears were sharpened in the search for -prey. 
Their limbs became lithe and supple as they chased 
the deer. They tamed the dog to help them on the 
hunt and they learned the mysterious ways of wild 
animals. 

Women and the Arts of Peace. On the other hand, 
primitive women started the arts of peace — industries 
of all kinds, agriculture, and homemaking. While 
the men were on the hunt, women studied grains, 
plants, and fruits. One writer has said : " One cannot, 
without profound thought, look upon the picture of 
a long train of Ute women (North American Indians) 
coming home with their drying baskets full of seeds 
upon their backs, supported by bands across their 
foreheads, holding also in one hand a gathering wand 
and in the other a winnowing and roasting tray. For 
these women are indeed the forerunners of all farmers 
and harvesters and threshers and common carriers and 
millers and cooks. The National Museum at Wash- 
ington possesses a collection of food plants used by 
savage women, and in the Royal Kew Gardens in 
London may be seen an exhibit arranged on the basis 
of plants. Unwittingly both these museums have 
erected monuments to the manual labor and skill of 
savage women." 



THE EARLY AGES OF MANKIND 



35 



Primitive women learned a great deal about cooking. 
They cut up and cured the meat killed by the hunters. 
They discovered how to parch and roast in pits filled 
with hot stones. They learned how to grind grain, 
to bake, and to boil. As this work fell to them, it 
was doubtless they who 
invented the first utensils 
— baskets to carry grain 
in and pots to cook in. 
They found out how to 
store provisions and they 
tamed the wild cat to 
protect their stocks from 
vermin. In their endless 
wanderings, they learned 
the qualities of plants. 
They found that some 

were good, some were poisonous, and others useful 
in sickness. They were therefore doctors and chemists, 
as they collected drugs and ground them for medicine. 
In our National Museum, there are hundreds of speci- 
mens of drugs that savage women used. 

Primitive women were also the first clothiers. They 
cut and sewed the skins of the animals caught in the 
hunt and made garments from them. They learned 
how to make threads from wool and from certain 
vegetables. They were the first spinners and weavers. 
As time passed, they became ever more skillful and 
artistic. They made dyes from the juices of the plants 




Natural History Museum. 
A Piece of Primitive Pottery 



36 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



they knew, and they made beads from bright-colored 
bits of stone. Thus domestic arts began. To prim- 
itive women we owe the beginnings of gardening, home 

music, pottery, sculp- 
ture, weaving, and 
embroidery. 

Finally there was 
the care of the baby. 
It was woman's great 
task to feed and care 
for the children. 
While the warrior de- 
stroyed life in battle, 
she protected life. 
While his spirit fed 
on hatred of his en- 
emies, her spirit was 
nourished by the love 
of her little ones. She 
not only cared for 
their physical needs. 
She taught them out 
of her store of knowl- 
edge how to guard 
against things danger- 
ous to life. The girls she trained in her domestic arts. 
The boys, as they grew up, were trained by the father 
in hunting, fishing, and fighting. 




A aiurul H istury Aluseum 

Navajo Woman Weaving 



THE EARLY AGES OF MANKIND 



37 



The Beginnings of Human Society 

The Savage Society. In the earliest days of mankind 
people lived together in small groups. Their only ties 
were those of the family. Such a group is called a 
savage society. Its members were few. They had 
for a long time no domestic animal. They had no 
fixed homes but lived in forests and caves. They 
wandered about 
from place to place 
in small bands 
hunting for food 
and shelter. 
Human beings liv- 
ing in this early 
stage of society, 
known as Bush- 
men, were found 
in Australia when 
white men first 
went there. 

Domestic Animals and Tribal Society. Humanity 
took an immense stride forward when it discovered 
how to tame the goat, the cow, and the sheep. This 
knowledge made it possible to have milk, meat, and 
cloth without the uncertain and exhausting labor of 
the hunt. We do not know when this remarkable 
discovery was made ; but we do know that it was 
long before people learned to write any story of their 







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Natural History Museum 
Fine Art in Savage Society 



38 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

doings. It is thought that the dog or the cat was the 
first animal to be tamed. That may have been a 
step toward the taming of goats and other animals 
caught on the chase and kept alive for food. 

After the domestication of animals, life for man- 
kind became more certain and secure than when every- 
thing depended upon hunting and fishing. Property 
began to accumulate. Some men grew rich and power- 
ful as their flocks increased. Great tribes of people 
gathered around the possessors of huge herds of cattle. 
There was much work to be done watching and taking 
care of the animals. Slavery was introduced because 
the labor of captives became valuable to the captors. 
So some men were turned from hunting and fishing 
to join the women in peaceful pursuits. Stores of 
meat, cheese, skins, and wool were laid up against 
times of dearth. In short, mankind was lifted one stage 
above the perilous and uncertain life of the savage. 

At the same time, warfare became a regular thing, 
as tribesmen fought each other over cattle or grazing 
lands. If you will take your Old Testament and read 
the Book of Numbers, you will see how the Israelites 
attacked the Midianites and took from them their 
flocks and herds. Indeed, in many of the early books 
of the Bible there are accounts of tribes waging war 
on their neighbors and seizing their cattle. 

The Art of Planting and Reaping. Later in primitive 
times, long before the art of writing was discovered, 
there came a second wonderful discovery ; namely, 



THE EARLY AGES OF MANKIND 39 

that seeds planted in the ground will take root and 
produce new supplies of grain. With some ancient 
peoples that discovery may have preceded the taming 
of animals, but generally.it was much later. When 
and where the art of agriculture began, we know not. 
One ingenious student of primitive life explains it in the 
following way. Grain grew wild in the forests. Primi- 
tive women gathered it and made bread of it by mixing 
it with water and baking it on hot rocks. In a time of 
abundance some of the grain was hidden in the ground, 
and, lo and behold ! it was called to life a hundred 
fold by the spring rains. Once discovered, the process 
was easy to repeat. So the secret of the seeds was 
found out. This is, of course, sheer guesswork ; yet it 
may be a correct answer to the riddle. At all events, 
we know that thousands of years before there were 
any written records of history the art of planting and 
reaping was learned. 

The Beginnings of Settled Life. This art was des- 
tined to make another important change in the af- 
fairs of mankind, one even greater than that made 
by the domestication of animals. While people de- 
pended upon hunting and cattle raising for a livelihood, 
they had to be constantly on the move from one hunt- 
ing ground or pasture to another. This migratory, or 
nomadic, life was, in time, completely changed by the 
discovery of agriculture. When people learned the 
value of the soil, they began to settle down to till it. 
Houses took the place of tents. The land was claimed 



40 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

as the property of the tribe or family that settled on 
it. More and more slaves were captured to till the 
fields. Scattered bands of savage hunters thus de- 
veloped into farmers. The nomadic shepherds were 
driven farther and farther into the hills as the farms 
spread out in every direction. Nations were founded. 
A mighty struggle for possession of the earth began. 



Questions and Exercises 

L I. Why is it so difficult to learn how man lived during 
the long ages that preceded the historic period ? 2. To make 
and use fire is recognized as one of the great Inventions of primi- 
tive man ; by what means could primitive man have discovered 
how to make fire ? In what ways did the control of fire help primi- 
tive man? 3. Imagine yourself left, like Robinson Crusoe, on 
a desert island, but without the tools that he obtained from the 
wreck. What would you do to enable yourself to live ? Even 
if you did not have tools, are there any ways in which you would 
be better off than a primitive man in the same position ? 4. Why 
are metal tools better than stone tools ? How did it happen that 
copper was used before iron ? For what purposes is copper used 
to-day ? 5. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin ; what is meant 
by an "alloy"? Modern coins are usually alloys; find out of 
what metals the one-cent piece, the five-cent piece, and the twenty- 
five-cent piece are alloys. Why is bronze not used much for tools 
and weapons to-day ? 6. Many of the inventions and discov- 
eries of primitive peoples were undoubtedly made by women; 
what modern inventions and discoveries have been made by 
women ? 7. Make a list of the important inventions and dis- 
coveries that were made before the time of recorded history. 

II. I. What animals were probably first tamed by primi- 



THE EARLY AGES OF MANKIND 41 

tive peoples ? What animals do you know of that have been 
tamed or domesticated since recorded history began ? 2. What 
is meant by a "nomadic society"? In what ways is a nomadic 
society, living on its herds of domesticated animals, an advance 
over a savage society, living chiefly by hunting wild beasts ? 
3. How does a farming people differ from a nomadic people ? In 
what ways is this difference an advance toward civilization ? 

Geographical Studies 

I. Remains of people that lived in Europe in the Old Stone 
Age have been found chiefly in Spain and France ; locate these 
countries on the map facing p. 436. 2. Some scholars believe that 
these primitive peoples originally entered Europe from northern 
Africa ; study the outline of the Mediterranean Sea (p. 436) and 
note the places at which these peoples may have found it easiest 
to cross from Africa to Europe. It is believed by some that in 
very early times there was a land connection between Europe and 
Africa at two points. Gibraltar was one of these; where might 
the other "land bridge" have been.? 

Suggestions for Reading 
for pupils 

Clodd, Edward — The Childhood of the World; Macmillan. 

The Story of Primitive Man; Appleton. 
Van Loon, Hendrik W. — The Story of Mankind (School edition), 

i-iv; Macmillan. 
Wells, Margaret E. — How the Present Came from the Past, 

Book I, i-vi ; Macmillan. 

FOR teachers 

Osborn, N. F. — Men of the Old Stone Age; Scribner. 

Tyler, J. M. — The New Stone Age in Northern Europe; Scribner. 

Wells, H. G. — The Outline of History, I, viii-x; Macmillan. 



CHAPTER III 
THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY 

After mankind learned to tame animals and till 
the soil, the number of people on the earth increased. 
Rich grazing lands were made use of for flocks and 
herds. Fertile river valleys were laid out into fields 
for cultivation. Men who had once thought only of 
hunting and fishing settled down with the women to 
the arts of peace. Wealth in cattle and grain accu- 
mulated. 

Then those who had riches became a target for the 
tribes which kept their old fighting habits. Warriors 
found it easier to conquer and rob than to watch flocks 
or till the soil themselves. Warfare on a large scale 
came to plague the earth's multitudes. Out of war- 
fare sprang powerful military leaders who conquered 
vast territories inhabited by herdsmen and tillers of 
the soil. So began the making of kingdoms and em- 
pires, wide-reaching and long-enduring. 

The Nations of the Orient 

Oriental Despotisms. The oldest nations of which 
we have written records rose in the fertile valleys of 

42 



THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY 



43 



the Nile and Euphrates rivers, in the regions generally 
known as Egypt and Babylonia. There many a 
kingdom was set up, flourished, and vanished thousands 
of years before Christ. Indeed, the history of the 
earliest centuries about which we know anything is little 
more than a story of one mighty king after another. 

First, it seems, warriors from the regions of Babylonia 
conquered the lands east to the mountains and west 
to the Mediterranean. They ruled millions of subjects 
and were, in turn, themselves overthrown. 

Then the emperors, or Pharaohs^ 
of Egypt extended their dominion 
by force of arms from the Sahara 
to the banks of the Euphrates. 
They governed their subjects with 
pomp and ceremony. Then they, 
too, were beaten in battles. After 
them came the Persian emperors, 
who overran all Asia Minor and 
Egypt and boasted of an empire 
greater than any the world had yet 
seen. They also had their day and 
left behind nothing but a few relics 
to tell of their riches and power. 

One modern scholar fixes the date 
of the first Egyptian king at more 
than 5000 years before Christ ; another places it at 
3400 B.C. The earliest mention of Babylon is at least 
3800 B.C. We know that about 2300 b.c. the borders 




•Mttrupuli'nn \iuseum 

A Statue of an Egyp- 
tian Pharaoh 



44 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



of the kingdom of Babylon reached the shores of the 
Mediterranean. We know that before the earliest 
kings of whom we have written records there were 
hundreds of minor rulers who built up great states and 
disappeared before new conquerors. 

The striking thing about these ancient kings is that 




From an old print 



The Ruins at Thebes (Egypt) 



they were all despots, or absolute rulers. That the 
common people, who tilled the fields, wove the cloth, 
or guarded the herds, should have a voice in their own 
government was not thought of. The king stood above 
all. Everything was made to glorify his name. The 
mighty pyramids of Egypt were the tombs of kings. 



THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY 



45 



The ruins of temples that still stand tell of their maj- 
esty. The pictures on the crumbling walls, the huge 
statues that once adorned imperial cities, the songs 
and ballads that have survived the wreck of ages, all 




From an old print 



Two Giant Guardians of a Vanished Empire 



bear witness to the prowess and grandeur of the despot. 
Artists, architects, and writers vied with one another 
in praising the names and deeds of their royal masters. 
Some kings ruled more wisely than others, but 
practically all of them ruled without regard to the 
desires of their peoples. They levied taxes at will ; 



46 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



they imprisoned or put to death any who incurred 
their displeasure ; they waged war, whenever they 
liked, to gain territory or to add to their glory. Their 
strength lay in the ignorance and fear of their subjects ; 
their weakness lay in the fact that their subjects and 
slaves did not care much whether their rulers were 
overthrown in battle or not. 




Ancient Oriental Empires 

Under such a system, the people had no freedom of 
spirit. They had to flatter the king to secure his 
favor. They cringed before him to escape his ill-will. 
They said and wrote things to please him. As despot- 
ism was the chief mark of the government, so cowardice 



THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY 47 

and cringing were the chief marks of the subjects. 
Fraud and deceit became common ; for by deceit the 
king's taxes and penalties could be avoided. 

Greece and Rome 

The City-States of Greece. In strange contrast 
to the despotic empires of Egypt and Asia Minor 
were the governments of Greece. The Greeks were a 
marvelous shepherd people who in very ancient times 
moved down in search of pasture into the rugged 
peninsula that bears their name. They conquered 
the people who already dwelt there and at the same 
time learned much from their subjects. Their new 
homeland was broken into many small regions by the 
mountains and the sea. It had no great river like the 
Nile and no vast plains like those of Babylonia. 

Though the Greeks lived close together and wor- 
shiped the same gods, they could not be permanently 
united. Many alliances and leagues were formed 
among them, it is true, but none of these lasted for 
long. It is true also that the Greeks of Macedonia, 
under Alexander the Great, built up a huge empire 
extending from the Danube River to the borders of 
India ; but it did not survive his death in 323 B.C. The 
peoples of Greece were too independent to bow their 
necks to a single ruler. They were happiest when 
divided into tiny states or commonwealths, each man- 
aging its own affairs. In desperate battles they beat 
off Persian kings who tried to subdue them, and 



48 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



not until many centuries had passed did they fall 
under the sword of the Romans. 

In the eighth century before Christ, there were in 
the Greek peninsula scores of these little countries 
known as city-states. Among them may be mentioned 
Corinth, Thebes, Miletus, and Argos. Most famous 
and important of all were Athens and Sparta. 




Ancient Greece 

The Greek state was usually no larger than a county 
in Ohio or Iowa. It had a sort of capital city with 
shops, temples, dwellings, and market places. The coun- 
try around it was laid out into small villages and farms. 
Each community formed one great family. The mem- 



THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY 



49 




From an old print 

I'he Parthenon — The Famous Temple at Athens 

bers of It believed that they were the descendants 
of the same god and were thus related. The citizens 
of each little state were Intensely patriotic. They 
were also enterprising, for they founded colonies all 
around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. 

Within their city-states the Greeks made many kinds 
of experiments in governing themselves. There were, 
however, three forms of government that were most 
common : the monarchy, or rule of one man ; the 
aristocracy, which meant in practice the rule of the 
few; and the democracy, or rule of the many. Our 
very word " democracy " comes from the Greek and 
means " rule of the people." 



so 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



A Greek democracy, however, differed very much 
from our modern notions. In Athens, for example, when 
the people ruled, the voters did not choose representa- 
tives to go to the capital and make laws. On the con- 
trary, the voters all assembled in the open air. They 
approved or rejected laws proposed to them, and they 
chose the magistrates or officials of the little state. 




A Greek Temple at Paestum in Italy 

In another respect also the Greek city democracy 
differed from ours. In Athens, for instance, even in 
the democratic period, there were about as many 
slaves as there were Athenians. There w^ere five or 
six slaves for every citizen who had a right to vote 
in the assembly. At its best, therefore, democracy in 
Greece was limited to a very small ruling class. The 
masses did not rule. They were slaves — men and 
women, usually white, taken captive in war or bought 
somewhere in a slave market. 



THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY 



51 



Rome : Kingdom, Republic, Empire. Of all the an- 
cient states, Rome became in time the most mighty. 
Yet it began most modestly. Sometime in the dim 
past there began to flourish on the banks of the Tiber 
a tiny kingdom inhabited by farmers. For more than 
two hundred years (753-509 B.C.) its kings slowly ex- 
tended their power over the surrounding country. 




Metropolitan Museum 

A War Chariot of the Etruscans, an Italian People Conquered 

BY Rome 



While Rome was expanding, her last king was over- 
thrown and a republic was founded. Following the 
example of the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the 
Persians, the Romans tried to conquer the known 
world. They defeated in wars all the other little 



52 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

states in the Italian peninsula and made them subject 
to the republic. Then they began to fight beyond the 
borders of Italy. They conquered Carthage, Greece, 
Gaul, much of Britain, all of the eastern Mediter- 
ranean country, and Egypt. Their armies, led by 
generals like Julius Caesar, were invincible. The 
proudest princes, beaten by them in wars, were dragged 
to Rome to march as captives in triumphal parades. 
Cleopatra, the beautiful queen of Egypt, escaped 
them only by committing suicide. Owing to their 
victorious armies, the dominions of the Roman re- 
public finally stretched from Britain to Arabia. 

While Rome was growing, its government re- 
mained very much the same. The vast republic was 
ruled by the city of Rome. It was, in fact, a city- 
state. The people of Greece, or Gaul, or Spain were 
given no voice in public affairs. They were governed 
with a stern hand by officers sent out from the capital. 
In the city itself, the government consisted of a senate, 
composed of nobles and rich men, two assemblies of 
citizens, and magistrates elected by the assemblies. 
Every male Roman citizen who was in the city of Rome 
at the time of the meetings could vote in the assembly. 

Was this not an amazing situation ? A few thousand 
men assembled in open meetings in Rome could deter- 
mine the fate of vast and distant dominions and millions 
of subjects. 

Untold wealth poured into Rome from the provinces. 
The little nation of farmers became a nation of reck- 




53 



54 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



less rich men and a city rabble. The rich grew richer ; 
the poor voters grew more and more corrupt and sold 
their votes to the highest bidder. 

Slowly the Roman republic was changed Into an 
empire under the rule of one man. No exact date can 

be fixed for this change. It was 
brought about by victorious gen- 
erals like Julius Caesar (100-44 
B.C.) who came back from the 
frontiers at the head of their 
armies and seized upon power 
at the city of Rome itself. Some- 
times these generals waged wars 
among themselves. At last in 3 1 
B.C. one of them, Octavianus, 
became the master of the so- 
called Roman republic. Four 
years later the Roman senate made the conqueror com- 
mander-in-chief of the army and head of the Roman 
religion, and gave him the title Augustus^ which had 
hitherto been given only to their gods. In other 
words, they made him emperor. The old forms of 
government were not changed. The senate still met and 
the assemblies of citizens still gathered ; but the republic 
was dead in fact, if not in name. 

In the course of time, the august emperor became the 
absolute master. The republic was changed into an 
empire ruled by one man whose word was law. from 
Spain to Pontus. The emperors, as they followed 




From an old print 

Julius Caesar 



THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY 



55 



one another in a long train, brought huge stores of 
treasures to the city of Rome. They built magnif- 
icent public buildings, massive triumphal arches, 
great highways, marvelous public baths, and vast 
amphitheaters for the entertainment of the people 




The Arch of Constantine 



of the city. They tried hard to keep the citizens at 
Rome contented. They gave bread to the masses 
and they amused them with shows in the amphitheater, 
where men called gladiators engaged in mortal com- 
bat or fought with lions and tigers — " every form 



56 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

of man or beast the broad empire of Rome could 
furnish." Never had the world beheld such splendid 
buildings, such wealth, such display of riches, such 
pomp and pride. 

For about four hundred years the empire of Rome 
lasted, but in the course of time it began to grow 
steadily weaker. Finally it was broken up like the older 
empires of the East (see p. 43). The citizens of Rome 
sank into luxury and sloth. A Roman writer lamented : 
" That majestic people which once controlled armies, 
high offices, and everything else, now limits its desires 
and its eager longings to two things only — bread 
and circus games ! " When the army failed, the empire 
fell. Rome could no longer rule the civilized world. 
Where august emperors once reigned in all their glory, 
we now behold the broken ruins of amphitheaters, 
fallen arches, and heaps of brick and stone. The 
struggle for the possession of the earth passed from 
the Romans to other races. We shall see later how 
they, in turn, played their part. 

Social Classes in the Ancient World 

The Antiquity of Classes. Humanity had not gone 
very far on the path from savagery before it was divided 
into many classes. Tribes, kingdoms, empires, city- 
states, and republics all had classes. First of all 
were the priests, who had charge of the religious cere- 
monies. Next were the nobles, who united with 



THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY 



57 



pride of birth the ownership of cattle and land in 
large amounts. Then there were the merchants, who 
traded far and wide, carrying goods from one section 
of a country to another and even from nation to nation. 
Below the merchants were the small farmers and the 
skilled artisans — the metal workers, stone cutters, 
and other wielders of tools. At the bottom of the 
scale were the serfs and slaves, bound fast to the soil 
they tilled or to the master who owned them. 

Sometimes these classes were united in defense 




Metropolitan Museum 



A Model of an Egyptian Palace 



against a foreign invader. Sometimes they engaged 
in struggles among themselves over the division of 
land and cattle. Many a time did the slaves rise in 
terrible rebellion against their masters, only to meet, 
usually, with equally terrible punishment. 

The Nobles. Whether we turn to ancient Egypt, 
Greece, or Rome we find a class of wealthy and power- 
ful landowners — men who held great estates tilled 
by slaves or bondmen of some kind. The fields of 



58 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

the Nile Valley were laid out into immense farms, each 
owned by a noble. To-day, historians dig up the 
ruins of their fine houses, visit their tombs, and read 
such of their books as have escaped the ravages of 
time. 

From the earliest days there existed in Athens and 
in Rome a class in most respects similar to the nobles 
of Egypt. In Rome, for instance, the most influential 
men were the nobles, owners of estates and members 
of distinguished families. The nobles were proud of 
their rank and looked upon themselves and their 
ancestors as superior beings. They were entitled to 
wear the purple stripe on their garments to mark them 
oif from the common people and slaves. In the later 
days of the republic, when Rome had become rich, 
the nobles by birth found themselves rudely elbowed 
by men who had made great fortunes in trade and 
politics — men who '' broke into " the nobility by one 
method or another. 

All Italy was dotted with the fine houses and estates 
of Roman nobles. The house of one of them, we are 
told, had more " rooms than many cities embrace 
within their walls." These palaces were decorated 
with beautiful marbles and statues brought from 
Greece, Asia, and Egypt. The families that dwelt in 
them were waited on by slaves and their lands were 
tilled by slaves. They themselves scorned trading 
and all kinds of manual labor, and would do nothing 
except hold a government office or a command in the 



THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY 59 

army. Eager to enlarge their holdings, the nobles bought 
up or seized the lands of the small farmers. In the later 
days of the empire all Italy was a collection of huge 
estates worked by slave labor. 

The Farmers. In several of the Greek states and in 
early Rome there were many farmers who owned 
small farms and tilled them with their own hands. 
The plebeians, as these commoners were called at Rome, 
were citizens, but at first their rights were limited. 
They could vote in the assembly, but they could not 
hold high office. Though the king might transform a 
plebeian into a noble, marriage between the nobles 
and the plebeians was forbidden. 

Many and long were the conflicts between these 
two classes in Rome, until in the later days the dis- 
tinctions between the two were nearly all abolished. 
Plebeians were permitted to marry nobles, and most 
of the offices were opened to them. 

For a long time, the Roman farmers were able to 
hold their own. It was believed that the stalwart 
farmer, who left the plow to fight the battles of Rome, 
was the best kind of citizen. " Farmers furnish the brav- 
est men and ablest soldiers," wrote the Roman Cato 
" No other calling is so honorable, safe, and pleasant 
as this is." Efforts were sometimes made to multiply 
the number of farmers by breaking up great estates 
into small plots. Especially was it a common practice 
to grant farms to returning soldiers — a kind of reward 
or bonus. As in the early days of the United States, 



6o OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

it was said that Rome was rich enough to give every 
man a farm. 

In the course of time, however, the number of free 
farmers became smaller and smaller. Their lands 
were often bought or seized by the nobles and changed 
into estates tilled by slaves. Many of them perished 
in battle. Thousands, unable to compete with slaves, 
drifted to the city of Rome or sank into the position 
of bondmen on the vast estates. As the republic 
gained new territories, it became the practice to grant 
the lands in huge plots to generals and politicians. 
A Roman writer tells us, for example, that six Romans 
owned half the province of Carthage and that the 
peasants of Africa were a wretched lot. He adds that 
he saw an ass and a woman harnessed together to drag 
a peasant's plow. 

The Artisans or Skilled Workmen. In Athens and 
in Rome, as indeed in all the cities of the ancient world, 
there were hosts of skilled workmen who were free in 
the sense that the small farmers were free. Along with 
them were found also numerous day laborers. When 
the city of Rome became the. center of a great empire, 
there were perhaps 500,000 people within its gates, 
of whom probably one half were free. They usually 
lived in huge apartment houses, each family having a 
few dark rooms in a great building. 

As the number of slaves who could do skilled work 
increased, the free artisan found it difficult to make a 
living. Often he sank to the level of a beggar, haunting 



THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY 6i 

the streets of the city. In both Athens and Rome, 
the free workman was regarded with contempt by the 
upper classes. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, de- 
clared that '' no man can practise virtue who is living 
the life of a mechanic or laborer." Cicero, the Roman 
orator, looked upon workmen as belonging to an in- 
ferior order, saying with scorn, ''A workshop can have 
nothing respectable about it." 

Merchants and Professional Classes. Athens and 
Rome, like Egypt and Phoenicia before them, developed 
trading to a high pitch. Their ships plowed all the 
waters of the Mediterranean and in their markets were 
found traders from every clime. In addition to com- 
merce, there were other ways of making money. Tax- 
gathering v/as a very profitable business, for the pub- 
licans^ or tax-gatherers, were permitted by law to 
gather about all they could wring from the people. 
Money-lending was also profitable. So was office- 
holding in Rome and in her provinces. Though 
merchants and bankers grew rich, the aristocracy con- 
tinued to look upon them with scorn. Cicero thought 
all retail merchants contemptible " because they can 
make no profit except by a certain amount of false- 
hood." Aristotle exclaimed that in the life of a mer- 
chant " there is no room for moral excellence." Never- 
theless, impoverished noblemen were often glad to 
marry their daughters to the sons of rich traders or 
money-lenders. 

Somewhat above the trading classes in the eyes of 



62 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



the Roman aristocracy were the professional classes ; 
but they too were of every degree. First among them, 
in the heyday of the Roman empire, were the archi- 
tects and engineers, the men who planned and built 




^ruin an old prinl 



A Roman Bridge near Nimes (France) 



the amphitheaters, palaces, and bridges. Musicians 
were in great demand for entertainments, public and 
private. Doctors, owing to the number of fraudulent 
fellows, or " quacks," had a hard time to win the esteem 
of the people. Some of them, however, rose to emi- 
nence. Such, for example, was Galen, who lived at 
the end of the second century after Christ. He was 
so famous that people from the ends of the empire 



THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY 63 

wrote him for advice and he told them by letter what 
medicine to take. Poets, historians, and teachers were 
frequently honored for their talents. 

In many cases, however, in the later days of Rome, 
the teacher was a slave in the house of the rich aristo- 
crat. Roman noblemen took pride in importing from 
Greece educated slaves as tutors for their children, 
or as reciters to amuse their guests. Some of the dis- 
tinguished writers of Rome were of this servile origin. 

The Slaves. The masses of people among all the 
great nations of antiquity were slaves. Slaves built 
the pyramids of Egypt, rowed the warships of Athens, 
and tilled the fields of Italy. The history of labor in 
antiquity is largely a history of bondage. As Rome 
grew, slavery multiplied. When the Romans conquered 
Italy, Greece, Africa, Gaul, Spain, Britain, and parts 
of Germany, they brought the captives into Rome 
by the thousands as slaves. It is estimated that 
Caesar in his conquest of Gaul took a million prisoners 
who were sold into bondage. In the slave markets 
of Rome could be found white-skinned Greeks and 
Germans penned up with swarthy Africans. 

Those who were sold as domestic servants usually 
had a fairly" easy life ; but most of them passed into a 
servitude on the great estates that was truly horrible. 
They were worked in the fields in chain gangs and 
thrown into dungeons at night. The owner had the 
power of life and death over his slaves. Those who 
resisted their masters or ran away were frequently 



64 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

crucified along the highways as terrible examples to 
their fellows. Toward the latter days of the empire, 
Italy was crowded with slaves and the descendants of 
slaves. Thousands of them had been freed by their 
masters. Some of them rose to positions of wealth and 
influence. Others swarmed into the cities, where they 
helped to swell the mobs so famous in Roman history. 

The Great Cities of Antiquity 

All the nations of antiquity had their great cities : 
Thebes and Memphis in Egypt, Nineveh on the Tigris, 
Babylon on the Euphrates, Jerusalem in Palestine, 
Tyre and Sidon in Phoenicia, Athens in Greece, Rome 
in Italy, and Carthage and Utica in northern Africa. 
In the Bible we can read graphic accounts of the 
mighty cities of the East. The populations of these 
ancient places we can only guess, for there was no 
regular census such as we have to-day. Rome in its 
prime, as we have seen (p. 60), had about 500,000 
people within its borders. Perhaps Babylon was even 
larger. 

The splendor of some of the cities dazzled all 
visitors. Babylon had its palace of terraces, rising 
one above another, and its " hanging gardens." It 
was reckoned by the Greeks as one of '' the seven 
wonders of the world." In all the cities, temples, pal- 
aces, baths, wonderful official buildings, stores, and 
the luxurious homes of the rich testified to their wealth 
and magnifience. 



THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY 



65 



Some of these cities have utterly vanished. Of 
Babylon nothing can be seen to-day except a few frag- 
ments of ancient walls and heaps of bricks crumbling 
into dust. Others have had continuous life. Athens 
is the capital of modern Greece, and many a stately 
ruin remains to tell of ancient days. Rome is the 




The Ruins of the Colosseum, the Great Amphitheater at Rome 



capital of modern Italy. The palaces of the emperors 
are no more, but some noble buildings remain intact 
to this very hour. 

The Romans were indeed the master builders of 
antiquity. Their capital city was the wonder of man- 
kind. Around the Forum, or ancient market place, 
they erected public buildings, imperial palaces, beauti- 
ful temples, and splendid monuments. All over their 



66 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

broad empire the Romans built magnificent cities. 
At Aries and Orange, in southern France, are to be 
found to-day splendid ruins that are visited annually 
by hundreds of Americans, curious to see the signs of 
Rome's world power. London stands on the site of 
an old Roman city, and here and there may be found 
a bit of wall or pavement that has escaped destruction. 
So, too, in Paris the traveler may see fragments of 
walls and arches and baths that have come down from 
the day when France was Gaul, a province of the 
Roman empire. 

It is in the cities of antiquity that we find much that 
resembles modern times. There were immense public 
buildings, monuments erected in honor of victorious 
generals, banking houses in which business was carried 
on with the most distant countries, and huge theaters 
for public amusements. There great throngs gathered 
in the streets to cheer returning soldiers or to hear 
the news of some momentous event in a far-off country. 
There were the tenements of the poor and the man- 
sions of the rich, the artisan working at the flaming 
forge, the women buying at the market, and the politi- 
cian stirring the masses by an impassioned oration 
on some burning question of the day. 



Questions and Exercises 

L I. Why can more people live in a country where farming 
is practiced than in one where hunting and fishing must be de- 



THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY 67 

pended upon for obtaining food ? 2. So far as we know, the 
first great nations grew up in the fertile valleys of the Nile and the 
Euphrates rivers, though the lands adjoining these valleys are very 
largely arid ; are there any reasons why such conditions should have 
been favorable to the development of these regions as the homes 
of people engaged in farming ? There are no great forests in these 
river valleys ; how did this help the farmers? 3. The Nile River 
overflows its banks each year and the water spreads over its valley ; 
in what ways would this be an advantage to farming ? Why were 
people living under such conditions likely to be united under strong 
and powerful leaders? 4. What is meant by a "despot"? 
5. Why do we know more about the wars and conquests of the 
ancient kings than we do about the millions of people whom they 
ruled? 6. The text mentions the "Pharaohs" as the rulers 
of ancient Egypt; what other terms have been used by different 
countries for their rulers ? 

II. I. How did the ancient Greeks differ from the people 
of the Nile and Euphrates valleys in their manner of living ? 
In government ? 2. How did the democratic government of 
Athens differ from our democratic government ? 3. Do the people 
of your town or city meet together to decide directly any ques- 
tions of government ? How many years elapsed between the 
supposed date of the first Egyptian kings (5000 B.C.) and the 
death of Alexander the Great (323 b.c) ? How many years be- 
tween the death of Alexander and the present time ? 4. What 
was the form of government in Rome in the early days of its 
history? What changes took place later? 5. How many years 
elapsed between the death of Alexander the Great and the death 
of Julius Caesar ? 6. What changes took place in the way in 
which the Romans lived as they passed from the rule of kings to 
the rule of the people and then to the rule of emperors ? 
7. Give as many reasons as you can to explain why the great 
Roman empire failed to endure. 8. The close of the Roman 
empire is usually placed at 476 a.d. ; how long was this after 



68 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

the first date that we associate with Rome (753 B.C.) ^ How 
does this compare with the number of years that our present 
government has been in existence ? 

III. I. We have in our country to-day priests or clergymen, 
large landowners, merchants, farmers, skilled workmen, and un- 
skilled laborers; why are these groups not "classes" in the sense 
in which this word is used in the text ^ 2. We do not have in 
our country " nobles," " serfs," or " slaves " ; name those countries 
in which there is still a class of "nobles." What is the difference 
between a "serf" and a "slave".'* 3. What occupations that 
are highly respected to-day were looked down upon as ignoble or 
dishonorable by the ancients.^ 4. In what ways are the great 
masses of people better off to-day than were the masses of the 
people in ancient times .^ 5. While some of the ancient cities 
were large, probably none was so large as are such modern cities 
as London, New York, Chicago, or Paris ; can you think of any 
reason explaining why such very large cities were probably impos- 
sible in the ancient world .? (Consider the problem of feeding so 
many people and the ways unknown to the ancients that we now 
have of producing foodstuffs, and especially of transporting food- 
stuifs quickly over long distances.) 

Geographical Studies 

L I. Study carefully the maps showing the location of the Nile 
and Euphrates valleys. Note how the Nile Valley is protected. 
Where does the Nile River rise ^ Trace the courses of the Tigris 
and Euphrates. When history began, these two rivers flowed into 
the Persian Gulf separately. Eridu (p. 46) was then a seaport. 
2. Study the map of Greece (p. 48), and point out some important 
differences between this region and the regions of the Nile and 
the Tigris and Euphrates. What advantages would the Greeks 
have in a country such as theirs ? Why was the country favor- 
able to the development of small city-states rather than to the 
development of a united kingdom or empire ^ Locate Athens, 



THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY 69 

Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, Miletus. 3. Point out the extent of 
the Greek empire that was formed by Alexander the Great and 
endured only while he lived. 4. Locate Rome. Why was Rome 
admirably situated to be the center of a great empire ^ (Note the 
ease with which the various parts of the Mediterranean basin 
could be reached by boats.) 5. Locate the regions that the 
Romans gradually conquered : Carthage, Greece, Gaul (France), 
Spain, Britain (England), Egypt, Asia Minor. 6. Locate the 
great cities of antiquity mentioned on p. 64. Find out which 
of these exist under their old names. Which of them occupy the 
sites under new names ^ Which of them no longer exist except as 
ruins ? 

Suggestions for Reading 

for pupils 

Arnold, Emma J. — Stories of Ancient Peoples ; American Book. 
Ashley, R. L. — Early European Civilization, i-iii ; Macmillan. 
Best, S. M. — Egypt and Her Neighbors; Macmillan. 
Brooksbank, F. H. — Stories of Egyptian Gods and Heroes ; Crowell. 
Gosse, a. B. — The Civilization of the Ancient Egyptians ; Stokes. 
Van Loon, Hendrik W. — Ancient Man; Boni and Liveright. 

The Story of Mankind {School edition), v-xxvi. 
Wells, M. E. — How the Present Ca7ne from the Past, Book I. 

for teachers 

See bibliographies at close of Chapters ii and iii in Bots- 
ford's a Brief History of the World; Macmillan. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 

The peoples of the ancient world did more than found 
great cities, states, and empires. They carried for- 
ward the work of civilization begun by primitive m.en 
and women. They improved the old ways of tilling 
the soil. They raised a greater variety of fruits, 
grains, and vegetables. They raised better sheep and 
cattle. They built solid and handsome houses. They 
made beautiful drawings, paintings, and sculptures. 
They erected wonderful temples and public buildings. 
They brought many of the domestic arts to a high state 
of perfection. They learned how to prepare and cook 
excellent food and to make fine linens, embroideries, 
laces, and brocades. For sheer beauty their work has 
never been surpassed, and seldom equaled. They 
studied the heavens and made the beginnings of the 
science of astronomy. They studied the ways of 
nature and thought deeply about right conduct. 
They wrote poems, books, and plays. They wor- 
shiped gods and had religious rites. Finally, they 
came to the idea of one God, all-powerful and all-wise ; 
and one of the peoples of antiquity, the Jews, also gave 
to mankind Christianity. 

70 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 71 

In the practical arts, such as domestic science and 
agriculture, the peoples of the ancient world made 
definite strides in advance of primitive life. In the 
fine arts, like architecture and sculpture, they pro- 
duced examples which the best artists of all later ages 
in the Western civilization admired and studied closely. 
In poetry, drama, oratory, and philosophy, they worked 
out such perfect models that all the world still marvels 
at them. Although our progress has been wonderful 
in material things, although we have the railway and 
the airplane, in all things of the mind we still have 
much to learn from the ancients. The English poet, 
Shelley, said of Greece : 

Her citizens, imperial spirits, 
Rule the present from the past; 
On all this world of men inherits 
Their seal is set. 

Those writers are nearer the truth, however, who tell 
us that the Jews gave to the world religion, the Greeks 
art and literature, and the Romans law and order. 
Even there we must not draw sharp dividing lines 
between the ancient nations, because they borrowed 
so much from one another. For a long time after Rome 
fell, the people of western Europe knew no ancient 
language but that of the Romans, Latin. So they 
read mainly about what the Romans had done. Hence 
it was easy to give too much weight to the work of 
the Romans. About the day of Columbus, scholars 
began to study Greek with great earnestness ; then 



72 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



they declared that the Greeks had done everything. 
Long centuries afterward, indeed almost within our 
own time, scholars learned to read the queer sign 
writing used by the still older Egyptians and Babylo- 
nians. Then they found out how deep was the debt 
of both Greece and Rome to nations thousands of years 
older than either of them. The life and thought of 
America are really linked in an unbroken chain with 
the life and thought of people whose homes and palaces 
were dust for ten centuries before Rome rose to great- 
ness on the banks of the Tiber. 



The Practical Arts 

Agriculture. In tilling the soil, as we have said, 
the ancients made remarkable advances over the 




Metro polilan Aluseum 

An Egyptian Picture Showing Plowing and Sowing 

methods followed by primitive people. They learned 
to irrigate dry lands. Perhaps they got the idea from 
the annual flooding of the Nile River. At all events, 
in both the Nile Valley and the Euphrates Valley, there 
were great irrigation works. The ancients also dis- 
covered the secret of fertilizers to enrich the soil. 
This enabled them to cultivate one spot for centuries. 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 73 

Thus they could give up wandering in search of new 
lands, and could support large populations in a rela- 
tively small area. They also discovered the secret of 
plowing and harrowing the ground so as to break it 
into fine powder. This, too, increased the production 
per acre. 

The ancients discovered many aids to agriculture. 
They tamed the ox, the horse, and the ass. They in- 
vented plows, harrows, and carts that were dragged 
by their beasts of burden. They built granaries in 
which to store their crops. They made knives or 
sickles to cut the grain. They used the ox to tread 
out the grain and they winnowed it, or separated the 
chaif from the grain, by tossing it into the air. For 
grinding the grain they made heavy stone mills, which 
were turned by slaves or oxen. 

The ancients increased their food supply in many 
ways. They domesticated more animals, such as 
swine, sheep, ducks, geese, and cows. They learned 
to handle the wild bee and secure vast quantities 
of honey. They grew peas and beans as well as rye 
and wheat. The plains of Italy and the fertile valleys 
of the Nile and the Euphrates were' the great grain- 
growing areas of the ancient world. In the rougher 
and more mountainous regions of Italy, Greece, and 
Palestine, vineyards and olive orchards flourished. 

The Domestic Arts. In all the home comforts, the 
ancients made great gains over primitive peoples 
who lived in caves or tents, or in brush and timber 



74 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

huts. They learned how to build stone houses. The 
nobles and rich men had wonderful palaces with baths 
and hot-air furnaces. The homes of the masses were 
very much like some to be seen to-day in Italy or 
Greece. They were of stone and plaster, with fiat 
roofs. There were no glass windows, but there were 
doors and wooden shutters. The floors were of stone 




Metropolitan Museum 
Some Plain Egyptian Furniture 

or dirt. But they had one great advantage — they 
were cool in summer. 

The art of cooking — bread-making, roasting, bak- 
ing, and stewing — was so improved over primitive 
times that delicacies could be made for those who 
could afford them. Bread was the staff of life. Wine 
and olive oil came next in the diet of the masses. Fruit, 
fish, meats, and honey appeared on the best tables. 
But as the ancients ate with their fingers, they did not 
have sauces and desserts like ours. Indeed, it has been 
said that sauces mark the great difference between 
modern and ancient cookery. 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 



75 



In cloth-making, the ancients have never been sur- 
passed. In the Metropolitan Museum of New York 
City, there are linen sheets, taken from ancient Egyptian 
tombs, which have lasted all through these centuries. 
The Egyptians pictured their goddess, Isis, with a 




Metropoliian Museum 

An Inlaid Roman Seat of the First Century after Christ 

shuttle in her hand ; and the Romans pictured their 
goddess, Minerva, with a distaff for spinning, showing 
how greatly they prized the work of their women. 
On the walls of Babylon and Nineveh, as well as of 
other ancient cities, there were pictures illustrating the 



1^ 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



cloth-making process all the way from the raising of 
sheep and the growth of flax to spinning and weaving. 
The ancients did more than make fine cloth. They 
made beautiful designs, wonderful tapestries, and 
embroideries. Especially in the lands of the eastern 
Mediterranean did the love of gorgeous decorations 
flourish. 

Owing to the mildness of their climate, the ancients 
spent much of their time out of doors. They got up 
early and went to bed early, as they had no brilliant 

lights for the house. 
Since they were an 
out-of-door people, 
they did not make 
as many kinds of 
furniture as we do 
to-day. They had 
chairs, couches, 
beds, and tables, 
though they were 
by no means as 
comfortable as 
ours. For what 
they lacked in com- 
fort and variety, 
they made up in 
decoration. The Egyptians, Assyrians, and Jews 
made wooden furniture, using much cedar and ebony 
and probably rosewood, walnut, and teak. They 




Metropolitan Museum 
Egyptian Jewelry 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS J^ 

decorated their tables and chairs by inlaying the 
wood with gold, silver, ivory, and precious stones. 
The Greeks employed bronze in making furniture, 
adding decorations of gold and silver. All these things 
the Romans had also ; but they were especially fond 
of beautiful marbles. 

Most of our ornaments of to-day originated among 
the ancients. They had necklaces, rings, bracelets, 
brooches, earrings, diadems, mirrors, combs, and jewel 
boxes. Their work in precious stones and metals was 
so good that modern workers find it hard to equal 
it and cannot surpass it. Ancient artists could carve, 
solder, inlay, cast, and chisel with a subtle skill and a 
fine taste that make us marvel as we look upon their 
work. 

Architecture and Art 

Egyptian and Babylonian Architecture. We do not 

know what people it was that first came out of caves 
and huts and learned to build houses of stone and brick. 
We do know, however, that very early in their history 
the Egyptians learned how to plan and erect great 
buildings. The pyramids, the towering tombs of their 
kings, and their temples have stood through thousands 
of years to bear witness to their skill. Moreover, they 
learned to decorate their buildings and to carve at 
the gates gigantic figures in stone. 

Of the buildings erected by the ancient peoples to 
the east of the Mediterranean, we know less, because 



78 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 




THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 



79 



they used so much wood and unburnt brick which did 
not srurvive the wear and tear of centuries. Of their 
work we can only read in the books that have come 
down to us. Accounts of Babylon, for instance, tell 
us of buildings huge in size and gorgeous in design, 
such as the Temple of Baal, greater even than the 
pyramids. They tell of " wonderful walls around the 
city, and the hang- 
ing gardens of Semir- 
amis." In the Old 
Testament, we can 
read of the beautiful 
tombs and temples 
of the Jews. In the 
third chapter of the 
second book of the 




WW 




Metropolitan Museum 
The Top of an Egyptian Column 



Chronicles, there is 
an account of the 
temple, or "House of God," built by Solomon at Jeru- 
salem. It was ceiled with fir, overlaid with gold, ''gar- 
nished with precious stones for beauty," and decorated 
with carvings and ornaments. Of this temple not a stone 
or sign remains. So we can only behold its beauty in 
the mind's eye as we read of it in the Bible. 

Greek Architecture. We know a great deal more 
about the architecture of the Greeks. Examples of 
their work and many splendid ruins are scattered far 
and wide in Mediterranean lands. The most beautiful 
as well as the most enduring work of the Greek archi- 



8o OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

tects was the temple. It was small in size, simple in 
form, straight in line, and designed to house the statues 
of one or more gods. Only a few could worship at a 
time within the gloomy shadows of its narrow chamber. 
That, however, suited the Greek kind of religion, as 
we shall see. 

Several of these temples still stand, preserving to 
this day their delicate columns and graceful lines. 
The most perfect temple is at Athens. There is another 
fine structure at Paestum, near Naples in Italy, erected 
there by an ancient Greek colony. The Greeks also 
built tombs and theaters ; but on none of these struc- 
tures did they lavish such care and affection as on the 
temples. 

Roman Architecture. The Romans copied directly 
from the Greeks. They early adopted the Greek 
temple, along with the Greek gods, but they added to 
both. The majestic Pantheon of Rome, erected to all 
their chief gods, combines a Greek porch and columns 
with a huge structure surmounted by a mighty dome. 
This building has stood about 1800 years almost intact. 

In other ways, too, the Romans added to the designs 
of the Greeks. Their special creations were vast amphi- 
theaters, circuses, triumphal arches, palaces, aqueducts, 
baths, and civic buildings. They learned somewhere 
how to make strong mortar and to build arches. With 
the arch they were able to erect buildings of great 
height and size. When men can only pile blocks of 
stone and wood upon one another, their designs are 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 



8i 



limited ; when they can use the arch and mortar, 
ev^en the very stones become almost as clay in their 
hands. With lavish profusion the Romans erected 
huge buildings throughout the length and breadth of 
their empire. The gigantic amphitheater, or Colos- 
seum, opened 80 a.d., had, when completed, seats for 
more than 40,000 people. It was about 600 feet 
long and 500 feet wide. Its outer rim stood more 
than 150 feet above the ground. So solid was its 
masonry that most of its walls 
and arches have survived the 
ravages of earthquakes and time. 

Size, mass, and strength marked 
the work of the Romans ; but they 
sought for beauty also. They 
robbed Greece of her marbles and 
statuary ; they brought monu- 
ments from ancient Egypt ; and 
they collected artists and sculp- 
tors from the ends of the empire. 
As they became rich, they em- 
ployed Greeks for delicate work 
and drew upon the Orientals for 
gorgeous colors. 

Art under the Oriental Despots. 
The Egyptians, from the earliest 
day of which we have record, drew, 
painted, and carved. The themes 
and forms of their art remained 




Metropolitan Museum 



An Example of the Best 
Egyptian Sculpture 



82 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

much the same for thousands of years, almost as 
fixed as the character of the Nile Valley in which 
they lived. Art was not free. That is, artists did 
not draw and paint and carve whatever pleased 
their fancy. The greatest artists were employed by 
the ruler, or despot, to glorify him, to picture his life 
and his deeds. They showed him in war, on the hunt, 
at the court, and in public ceremonies. Instead of 
art for its own sake, art was used to portray the spirit of 
servility to despots. Moreover, Egyptian artists were 
very limited in their imagination. To express wisdom, 
cunning, courage, and other traits, they often placed on 
the statues of their rulers and gods the heads of ani- 
mals supposed to have those qualities. Much of their 
work was unnatural and confined to straight lines ; 
but in later days they learned to carve in stone mar- 
velous, lifelike portraits. In their art, the Persians, 
Assyrians, Hebrews, and Babylonians were in many 
respects like the Egyptians. 

Greek Art. It was the Greeks who first worshiped 
beauty and gave living and natural form to painting 
and sculpture. While the Greeks learned, too, from the 
art of their neighbors, especially from the Egyptians, 
they were themselves creative. That is, they did not 
merely imitate. They had imagination and expressed 
their ideas in the spirit of their own freer society. 
Their matchless work, of which we have many examples, 
has been the model and envy of artists everywhere. 
Their chief subjects were gods rather than kings. As 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 83 




Metropolitan Muse'um 



The Discus Thrower 



84 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

the gods were supposed to be like men and women, the 
artists drew them in human form. Moreover, the 
Greeks made their own bodies beautiful by taking 
athletic exercise, and these served as the models for 
artists. Instead of carving rigid images like the 
Egyptians, the Greeks gave movement and grace to 
their statues. The Discus Thrower beautifully rep- 
resents this living art. Lovers of art tell us that 
Phidias, a Greek born about 500 years before Christ, 
was the greatest of all the Greek sculptors, and that 
in beauty his work has never been surpassed. 

Roman Art. In the field of art the Romans were 
copyists rather than creators. They saw about them 
in the old Greek colonies of Italy many examples of 
the finest Greek work. They welcomed Greek artists 
who came to Italy to seek their fortunes or were 
exiled from home. They brought Greeks from Athens 
to teach them, and they sent their sons to study in 
Greece. For fine and delicate things they relied mainly 
upon Greek skill. As the Romans grew rich, the sena- 
tors, emperors, and noble ladies took pride in having 
themselves portrayed in marble. Some of the best 
examples of art that have been preserved from the 
Roman period are the busts of eminent citizens. 
The Romans not only copied ; they also collected and 
preserved some of the best work of the ancient Greeks. 

Modern Studies of Ancient Architecture and Art. 
Modern admiration for Greek and Roman work is 
so great that the leading nations now have schools 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 



85 




1 3f ^1 81 31 li 
i»83 2li«il 

Si a u a '! 

- 3S it i* *' 



at Athens and at Rome for the study of art and archi- 
tecture, as well as other antiquities. Some of these 
schools are supported by governments and others by 
private societies. The English, French, Germans, 
and Americans have been eager 
seekers after the beauties of the 
ancient world. Their museums 
are filled with statues — originals 
or models — and other art ob- 
jects. In the eighteenth century 
the Europeans began to write 
serious and important books on 
ancient art and buildings. To- 
day there are whole libraries on 
the subject in many tongues. No 
one who desires to become a 
master builder or painter or sculp- 
tor can neglect the study of the 
ancients. 

Architects to-day use in our 
buildings the Greek columns and 
the Roman arches, as well as the 
spires of the later ages. In Amer- 
ica's own creation, the '' sky- 
scraper," there appear many de- 
vices of the ancients. If an 

ancient Greek could come to life, like Rip Van 
Winkle, and stroll down the streets of New York City, 
he would be astounded to see the pillars of a Greek 



fi 



Kl^W ^ 



i 









I 




Courtesy of Bankers' Trust Co. 

Greece and Egypt 
IN New York 



86 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

temple perched hundreds of feet above the earth near 
the dizzy summit of a great office building. If an 
ancient Pharaoh could step out of his mummy case and 
accompany the Greek, he would be amazed to see 
the columns of the Greek temple surmounted by a huge 
pyramid towering high toward the clouds. Verily we 
may again say of the ancients : 

On all this world of men inherits 
Their seal is set. 

Literature and Education 

The Origin of Writing. Literature and education, 
like art, were matters of slow growth. They did not 
spring up overnight. Indeed, for countless ages man- 
kind got along without knowing how to write ; that 
is, how to express ideas by means of marks. 

The art of writing began with picture making. 
One may write " There is a house " merely by drawing 
a picture of a house. On the other hand, one may use 
a picture to convey an idea very different from the 
drawing itself. For example, a picture of an eye may 
mean not only an '' eye," but " I." 

Picture writing easily grew into sign writing. It 
became possible to express even the most difficult 
ideas by means of symbols. All early writing in Egypt 
and Babylonia was based on pictures, and it took 
hundreds of different pictures or symbols to tell a 
long story. To this day, the written language of 
China and Japan has the form of pictures. It is made 



THE CULIURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 87 



.^±:^ 



up of thousands of signs or separate characters. Even 
for the Chinese and Japanese it is difficult to learn. 

Out of picture writing grew the art of 
writing by marks, each of which stood for 
a sound. Finally, there were invented 
twenty or more marks or letters which in- 
cluded all the sounds of a spoken language. 
Three thousand years before Christ, the 
Egyptians had stumbled upon this device 
and had invented an alphabet of twenty-four 
letters. Long afterward the Phoenicians 
made the alphabet from which ours came. 

Thus phonetic spelling, or spelling by 
sound, took the place of picture writing. 
This was one of the most wonderful steps 
in the growth of human knowledge, be- 
cause in this way thoughts could easily be 
recorded and so passed on from one age to 
the next. It made possible widespread learn- 
ing — the democracy of knowledge, so to 
speak. Knowledge could no longer be lim- 
ited to the few when anyone with a little 
leisure could learn to read the books of the 
wisest thinkers. China at this time is taking 
this step in language development by intro- Egyptian Pic- 

, . , • 11. 1 1 TURE Writing 

ducmg phonetic spellmg among her people. 

The Subject Matter of Early Literature. Long be- 
fore picture writing or phonetic spelling was invented, 
ancient peoples had stored up in their minds a great 




88 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

deal of knowledge. It was in the form of ballads, 
songs, tales, fables, and laws. It was handed down 
from father to son by word of mouth. In each nation 
or tribe there were a few '' wise " men whose business 
it was to memorize this store of learning. They also 
taught it to the young, who were in turn to pass 
it on. . When the art of writing was invented, the 
first things set down were the old songs, ballads, stories, 
and laws. Thus literature began. The word itself 
is from the Latin litera, meaning merely a letter of 
the alphabet or symbol. 

The earliest of the Greek poets whose works have 
come down to us was Homer, who collected the song- 
stories that had long been sung in Greece. So among 
the English-speaking people, the earliest literature is 
the songs and legends of the Anglo-Saxon peoples 
brought together in the poem of Beowulf. In some- 
what the same way, our own poet Longfellow took the 
American Indian legends, wove them into Hiawatha, 
and gave us a picture of old Indian religion, life, and 
culture. 

Oriental Literature. The Egyptians, Jews, and other 
ancient peoples had many books long, long before the 
birth of Christ. They had war songs, stories of the 
great deeds of kings, medical books, and writings on 
moral conduct. The Egyptians had great libraries 
of books written on papyrus, that is, rolls of paper 
made out of reeds. At Nineveh there was a huge 
library of clay tablets. The Jews likewise had a vast 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 89 

literature. Many of their writings, which were deemed 
sacred, were collected in that part of the Bible known 
as the Old Testament. In it we find stories of creation 
and of many wars ; there we can read the history of 
the Jews and other peoples of southwestern Asia, be- 
sides the famous laws written in the Ten Command- 
ments and poems, such as the Psalms. 

Greek Literature. Greek literature, as we have 
seen, opens with the poems of Homer. In his Iliad 
and Odyssey, he recounted many a myth and tale of 
ancient gods and men. When Homer lived — indeed, 
whether he lived at all — is uncertain ; but several hun- 
dred years before Christ, the stories that bear his name 
were known among the Greeks. 

As Greece grew older, there appeared many poets, 
orators, philosophers, and play writers. The great 
poetess Sappho was placed by the learned Greek, 
Aristotle, in the same rank with Homer. The historian 
Herodotus wrote fully about an important period of 
Greek history, and is regarded to-day as "" the father 
of historical writing." The Greeks also wrote plays — • 
tragedies and comedies — which were given in the 
large open-air theaters. Aeschylus, Sophocles, and 
Euripides won immortality as playwrights. When 
Athenian citizens met to elect officers and decide 
public questions, they were addressed by orators who 
discussed the issues of the day. The most famous 
orator of all, Demosthenes, warned the Athenians 
in a famous oration that they were in danger of being 



90 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

conquered by Philip, king of Macedon. In addition to 
poets, historians, playwrights, and orators, the Greeks 
had many philosophers. These men inquired into the 
meaning of life, the nature of the gods, and human con- 
duct. First among these were Socrates, Plato, and 
Aristotle, whose ideas, after the lapse of more than 
two thousand years, are still studied by seekers after 
wisdom. 

In each of these fields of literature, the Greeks 
created a fine method, or technique, which serves as 
a guide for our own writers. They searched for the 
best style ; that is, for clearness, force, and accuracy. 
In the play, or drama, they learned how to make 
thrilling plots, to work audiences up 'to the climax, 
and to make a telling ending. Their orators studied 
deeply the art of persuasion and drew up certain im- 
portant rules for making a convincing speech. 

Roman Literature. The Romans conquered the 
Greeks by arms, but it may truly be said that the 
Greeks conquered the Romans by their art and lit- 
erature. The greatest Greek books were translated 
into Latin, often by Greek scholars. They were taught 
to Roman youths and imitated by Roman poets, 
historians, orators, and philosophers. 

The Romans were more than imitators in literature. 
Their poet Vergil will ever live beside Homer. Their 
Horace, who wrote about everyday Roman life, will 
compare in fame with the best poets of Greece. 
The Roman orator Cicero, even more than Demos- 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 91 

thenes, perhaps, was the model of all later orators who 
sought to speak in the grand style. The philosopher 
Seneca, though he did not rival Aristotle in his wis- 
dom and understanding, was counted among the great 
thinkers of the ancients. As playwrights, however, the 
Romans could not excel, or even equal, the Greeks. 
The people preferred the crudest kind of comedies. 
Roman playwrights and actors could not think up 
anything as exciting as the gladiatorial combats in 
the Colosseum or the gorgeous parades arranged by the 
emperors. 

In writings on law and history, however, the Romans 
were path-breakers. They compiled their laws in 
great collections or codes. Many of these have come 
down to us and are carefully read by students of law. 
Indeed, Roman law, changed, of course, is still used 
in France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and many other 
countries. 

Rome also produced some historians of lasting 
fame. One of the finest models of historical writing 
is Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War. For 
simplicity, dignity, and accuracy, it is admirable. It 
is justly chosen as the first serious Latin book to be 
read in American high schools to-day. In the historical 
writings of Tacitus we have more than stories of battles 
and rulers ; we have wonderful pictures of life and 
customs. Tacitus did not seek merely to glorify his 
country. He tried to understand it and to find ways 
of protecting and saving it. 



92 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

The Influence of the Greek and Latin Languages. 

After Greece declined and the Roman empire fell to 
pieces, the books of the Greeks and Romans, like their 
art, remained to influence all future generations. There 
is only one Roman Forum, and one must go to Rome 
to see it ; but Caesar's Commentaries can be multiplied 
into millions of copies. The elegant Latin that Cicero 
spoke was no longer in daily use ; the Latin of the 
people slowly grew into modern Italian, French, and 
Spanish. 

While this change was taking place, educated people 
kept on studying and writing Latin. It became, as 
we shall see, the official language of the entire Christian 
Church for many centuries. The official documents 
of the Catholic Church are still published in it. So 
much wisdom was locked up in the writings of the 
Greeks and Romans that teachers once required all 
college and high school students to learn one or both 
of these ancient tongues. It is only within recent 
years that college students have been allowed to choose 
modern instead of ancient languages. 

Education in Ancient Times. As in our time, so 
in ancient Greece and Rome there were schools. 
Sometimes they were supported by the government, 
but usually they were conducted by private persons. 
As in our day, also, the rich Greeks and Romans often 
had private tutors to teach their children at home. 
In Rome, it was common for wealthy men to employ 
learned Greek slaves to teach their boys and girls. 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 93 

Sparta affords us the best example of government 
control of education among the Greeks. In that 
state every son of a freeman was trained by officials 
to serve the government, especially in the art of war- 
fare. The education of the Athenian boy usually con- 
sisted of reading, writing, music, and gymnastics. 

To reading and writing, the Romans frequently 
added the study of the Greek language. This was 
because they relied upon Greek books for much of 
their wisdom. It appears that all the larger cities of 
Italy and most of the small tow^ns also had schools, 
at least for elementary education. In the days of the 
great Roman empire, the government encouraged citi- 
zens to found schools in the provinces in order to 
spread the language and the culture of Rome. Roman 
nobles and rich men often had great libraries on their 
country estates ; and occasionally one of them gave 
money for a public library instead of giving a gladia- 
torial show. 

In addition to the lower schools there were univer- 
sities at Athens, Rome, and many other ancient cities. 
These were established by groups of teachers who 
gathered around some scholar and taught his ideas. 
Athens was the great university center of antiquity. 
To that city flocked students from Rome, Egypt, and 
all parts of the known world. There some of the wisest 
thinkers of all time, men like Socrates, Plato, and Aris- 
totle, won their fame as teachers. 

There was little learning outside of the schools. 



94 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

There were no printed books, magazines, or newspapers. 
The masses of the people were slaves and received 
no education at all. Workmen and merchants were 
regarded as persons of a lower order, unworthy of 
education. The modern idea that every boy and girl 
should go to school was utterly unknown. Since 
labor was looked down upon, training for work with 
tools was treated as something beneath the dignity of 
the educated classes. 

Still the Greeks thought of themselves as masters 
of all things. Thus wrote the poet Sophocles, when 
Athens was in her glory : '' Of all strong things, none 
is more wonderfully strong than man. He can cross 
the wintry sea and year by year compels with his 
plow the unwearied strength of the Earth, the oldest 
of the immortal gods. He seizes for his prey the aery 
birds and teeming fishes, and with his wit has tamed 
the mountain-ranging beasts, the long-maned horses, 
and the tireless bull. Language is his, and wind-swift 
thought and city-founding mind ; and he has learned 
to shelter himself from cold and piercing rain ; and has 
every device to meet every ill, save Death alone." 

Ancient Ideas about Government. In their schools, 
the ancients discussed the whole subject of govern- 
ment. They also thought a great deal about the best 
form of government. Socrates and Plato gave much 
attention to planning an ideal scheme. They decided 
that all land and property ought to be owned by people 
in common and that all people should work solely for 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 95 

the common good. Aristotle, on the contrary, replied 
that this was impossible. He said that property should 
be, as a general rule, private ; he thought that men 
would work harder if each one looked after his own 
business and reaped the results of his own labor. He 
taught that the best form of government was a kind of 
modified democracy. He said that farmers busy in 
their fields made the best citizens, and that an ideal 
government was one in which each family had a small 
amount of property. He feared the government of the 
few or the rich. He likewise feared the government of 
the many or the poor. In his scheme, women were 
to obey their husbands and keep silent, and slaves 
were to do most of the work. Aristotle believed that 
slavery was both natural and right. 

Some of the writings of these three philosophers 
have been kept all through the centuries, and have 
been translated into English. The founders of the 
American republic were familiar with them. Jefferson, 
for example, agreed with Aristotle in many things, 
especially that a nation of farmers was the best kind 
of nation {First Book, p. 157). 

Ancient Religions and Christianity 

Religion. All peoples in all times have believed in 
powers and forces outside of themselves, called gods 
or goddesses. With this belief has been coupled a 
feeling of duty toward the gods, which all must fulfill. 

All early races beUeved in many gods. "Our 



96 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



th 



an a man i 



country is so peopled with divinities," exclaimed a 
Roman writer, '' that you can find a god more easily 
The gods were to the ancients the 
spirit of mystery that lay in all the 
works of nature. They thought of 
them as in trees, vegetation, seeds, 
growth, the seasons, and death. Some 
gods were great and powerful and 
towered above all the rest. Others 
were minor and local. 

In Greece, each family and each 
community had its local deities. Then 
there were gods and goddesses com- 
mon to all Greeks. Chief among the 
latter were Zeus, the father of gods 
and men, ruler and lawgiver of the 
universe ; Athena, the goddess of wis- 
dom and handiwork ; Apollo, the god 
of light and beauty ; Demeter, the 
goddess of the earth, fruits, and vege- 
Metropoiitan Museum tatiou ; Aphroditc, the goddess of 

An Egyptian Goddess j^^^ . ^^^ ^^.^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^f battles. 

The Romans likewise worshiped many gods. Ju- 
piter, like Zeus in Greece, was the greatest of them 
all, while Mars, like Ares, was the mighty god of 
battles. The goddess Vesta ruled over household 
affairs, and Venus was adored as the goddess of love. 
Besides these, the Romans had hundreds of minor 
gods for places and things. Silvanus, for example, 




THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 



97 



was the god of the woods, and Terminus, the guardian 
of the boundaries of land. 




Metropolitan Museum 

A Restoration of the Interior of the Parthenon Showing the 
Goddess Athena 

Among both the Greeks and the Romans there was 
set aside a special class of persons, known as priests 



98 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

or priestesses. It was their duty to take charge of 
the worship of the gods. They were to keep the gods 
pleased, to avert their anger, and to find out what they 
wanted men to do. In Rome, for instance, it was the 
duty of six maidens, known as the Vestal virgins, to 
guard the sacred fire that burned always in the temple 
erected to Vesta, the household goddess. There were 
in later days pontiffs, who had charge of all religious 
affairs. They performed the ceremonies at marriages 
and funerals and on other occasions. 

The chief pontiff was called '' the judge of all things 
divine and human." In the days of the empire, the 
emperor himself was supreme pontiff. Indeed, he was 
worshiped by the people as one of the gods themselves. 

Ideas of Right Conduct. Very early in their history, 
both the Greeks and the Romans began to think about 
morals. They wrote books on the duties which people 
owe to one another, and some of their writings on this 
subject have come down to us. One of them, Aristotle 
(p- 95)) taught that all persons should seek the best 
life and that the best life is a life of virtue. 

Among the Romans, none rose to nobler heights 
than Marcus Aurelius, who was the emperor from 161 
to 180 A.D. • In a book called Meditations, which can 
be had in many English translations, he wrote lofty 
rules for right conduct. He taught kindness, simple 
living, modesty, honest labor, generosity, and the 
spirit of forgiveness. *' Respect that which is best in 
the universe," he said, '' and in a like manner also 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 99 

respect that which is best in thyself. ... I seek 
the truth by which no man was ever injured. He is 
injured who persists in his error and ignorance." All 
good things, he said, he learned from his mother and 
his teacher, and in the midst of his trying duties as 
emperor he remembered them and sought to practice 
them in daily life. Often he was impatient with man- 
kind. " The things which are much valued in life," 
he once exclaimed, " are empty and rotten and trifling, 
and people are like little dogs biting one another and 
little children quarreling, crying, and then straight- 
way laughing." The wars and evil deeds of men 
filled him with grief. But he concluded : '' Still it 
is no right way to be offended with men ; it is thy duty 
to care for them and bear with them gently." Never- 
theless, he found it hard to live up to the rules he chose 
for himself. Strange as it may seem, this very man was 
cruel to the Christians, the followers of One who also 
taught of mercy and love. 

The Idea of One God. The wisest among the an- 
cients believed that there was only one God, not many 
gods. The Hebrew prophets were among the first 
to take this view, and to proclaim Jehovah as their 
sole God. The masses of the Hebrews, however, had 
a hard struggle in trying to keep the one true faith. 
Continually they fell into idolatry and the worship of 
other gods. Whenever they did this, they were 
fiercely denounced by the prophets and called back 
to the worship of Jehovah. 



100 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

The Greeks in time began to exalt one of their gods, 
Zeus. The deepest of their thinkers were working 
toward the idea of one God, the wise and just ruler 
of the universe. Socrates was put to death for ques- 
tioning the belief in the old gods and teaching that 
there was but one God. 

The Romans in later days exalted Jupiter above 
all their other deities. Many of them, like the Hebrew 
and Greek teachers, learned to believe in one God, 
but Roman statesmen said that the people must honor 
all the gods. After the Romans came to rule over many 
lands and nations, they permitted every kind of belief 
that did not make trouble for their officers. By doing 
this, they grew more and more doubtful about their 
own gods. It is said that many a Roman priest laughed 
up his sleeve as he offered sacrifices to his many gods. 
A Roman in the days of the Emperor Nero flatly 
declared that " nowadays nobody believes in Heaven 
and nobody cares a straw for Jupiter ; everybody shuts 
his eyes and just keeps thinking about his own affairs." 
Through this decay of Roman religion, the way was 
prepared for a new faith, Christianity. 

The Origin of Christianity. In the reign of Augus- 
tus, Rome's first great emperor, there was born in 
Palestine, a distant part of his realm, Jesus Christ, 
the founder of the new religion. His life, his labors, 
his teachings, and his tragic end are all recorded in 
the first four books of the New Testament, the Gospels 
of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In them we read 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS lOi 

how he went about teaching in the highways and the 
byways, how he rebuked the Pharisees for their pride 
and haughtiness, how he performed miracles, how 
he delivered the Sermon on the Mount, how he 
preached the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood 
of man, how he taught that the humblest who believed 
in him should have eternal life, and how he gathered 
his disciples around him to spread the gospel. 

Near the end of the story we are told that he was 
brought before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, 
and accused of trying to make himself king of the 
Jews, in defiance of the Roman emperor. Pilate was 
much puzzled by the conduct and words of Jesus, 
and at length turned him over to the mob to be cru- 
cified. Then comes the story of his resurrection, the 
Last Supper with his followers, and his ascension into 
heaven. Among the very last words of Jesus recorded 
by Mark was the command : '* Go ye into all the 
world and preach the gospel to every creature." 

The Mission of the Apostles. The command was 
carried out by the followers whom Jesus left be- 
hind. In the Acts of the Apostles and in the letters 
of Paul to the Romans, the Corinthians, and his other 
brethren, we read of the labors of the disciples and 
missionaries. In the second chapter of the Acts it 
is written that the faithful apostles, who assembled 
at Jerusalem, were '' gifted with tongues " so that they 
might preach the gospel to the peoples of the earth 
in all languages. There we learn about the formation 



102 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

of the first church of the faithful at Jerusalem. There 
we read of the ceaseless journeys of the missionaries 
of Christ as they spread the gospel in many parts of 
the Roman empire and formed new churches of the 
faithful. There we read of Paul, converted suddenly 
on the road to Damascus and preaching the gospel 
far and wide, in Athens, Corinth, and Rome. In his 
many letters to the new congregations of Christians, 
Paul encourages them, chides them, advises them, 
explains the gospel, and exhorts them to holy living 
and good works. 

The Reasons for the Spread of the New Faith. 
With wonderful swiftness, the Christian faith spread 
among the masses everywhere in the Roman empire. 
There were many reasons for this. For one thing, it 
was a universal faith ; that is, it offered salvation and 
immortal life not only to Jews, but also to Greeks, 
Romans, and all the earth's multitudes. Again, it 
taught the equality of all men before God, that the 
soul of the most wretched Roman slave was as precious 
as the soul of the proudest emperor. Moreover, it 
offered the kingdom of heaven to all persons worn out 
by the labors, trials, and perils of this world. None 
was so humble that he was unwelcome in the new 
church. Had not Jesus himself said : '' Blessed are 
the meek for they shall inherit the earth " ^ The 
working people, scorned and despised by the ruling 
class of Rome, found a home in the Christian congre- 
gations. Jesus had been a carpenter and his apostles 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 103 

had been humble folk. On the Roman slave whipped 
to his dungeon at night, Christ's words of mercy fell 
like the dews of heaven. The lowly everywhere 
turned from the stern gods of war and hatred to the 
God of love and sweet charity. 

Persecution of the Christians. The Roman govern- 
ment at first tolerated Christianity as it tolerated 
all other religious beliefs. In a little while, however, 
Roman mobs began to stone the missionaries and 
preachers. In time of such disorders, minor Roman 
officers were called upon to punish Christians for dis- 
turbing the peace and preaching against the Roman 
religion. After a while the emperor himself began to 
take notice of the new sect and to look upon it as 
dangerous. The Christians refused to worship him 
as divine, as all Roman subjects were required to do. 
They would not preach toleration of the Roman re- 
ligion because they believed it to be utterly false. 
Moreover, they held many public and private meetings 
and formed brotherhoods among the faithful. 

The Roman emperor was in mortal terror of secret 
societies and *' seditious " meetings. He began to 
fear that the Christians would try to overthrow him, 
especially as they grew more and more numerous. 
So at length he forbade Christian worship. He pun- 
ished with imprisonment or death thousands of Chris- 
tians who refused to obey. Some were burned at the 
stake ; others were thrown to wild beasts in the Colos- 
seum. Their churches were torn down ; copies of the 



104 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Scriptures were destroyed by fire ; and their ceremonies 
were forbidden by law. 

Some emperors were worse' than others, but by the 
end of the third century the persecution of Christians 
became widespread and terrible. In Rome they were 
forced to take refuge in caves and underground passages, 
known as catacombs. In several places in Rome and 
other cities, they dug vast tunnels and rooms deep 
underground. There, huddled together in the darkness, 
they held their religious services and buried their dead. 
To-day the traveler, by the dim light of candles, 
may journey through hundreds of miles of the gloomy 
catacombs of Rome. He may read on the grave- 
stones and on the walls of the low-vaulted chapels the 
solemn story of cruel days when Christianity was 
driven underground by the terrorism of the Roman 
government. 

The Triumph of Christianity. Yet persecution could 
not kill Christianity. On the contrary, it flourished 
in spite of prisons, executions, and mob violence. All 
over the Roman empire Christian churches sprang up ; 
and, in time, some rich and powerful people were drawn 
to the new faith. Finally, even the emperor was com- 
pelled to compromise with the Christians. In 311 
A.D. he publicly gave them permission to worship as 
they desired. Before many more years passed the 
Emperor Constantine declared-Christianity to be the 
one lawful religion of his empire. 

The third stage in the triumph of Christianity came 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 105 

when the Roman emperors ordered every one to accept 
the Christian faith. Those people who refused were 
called heretics, and it was their turn to be severely 
punished. 

Thus, about three hundred years after the death of 
Christ, the Christian faith became the law of a vast 
empire. Rome, the old capital of the empire, had 
become the seat of the pope, the head of the Catholic 
Church, " Catholic " meaning universal. According 
to Catholic belief, the first pope was the Apostle 
Peter, to whom Christ had said: ''Thou art Peter 
and upon this rock I will build my church. . . . And 
I will give unto thee the keys to the kingdom of heaven." 
This, we are told, was the beginning of the Catholic 
Church. Under the leadership of the popes, the work 
of the Church was carried on even while the Roman 
empire was crumbling into ruins. Under their guidance 
earnest missionaries were carrying the gospel of Christ 
far and wide to the peoples of Europe, Asia, and Africa. 

In time the head of the once persecuted Church 
dared to write to the emperor himself : '' There are 
two powers, august Emperor, by which the world 
is chiefly ruled, namely the sacred authority of the 
priests and the royal power. Of these, that of the 
priests is the more weighty because they have to render 
an account even for the kings of men in the divine 
judgment." 

Surely in all the history of mankind there is no 
story more amazing than this., From the shores of 



io6 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Galilee there came a religious faith that was to con- 
quer a vast empire, to live on after that empire had per- 
ished, and to spread to every land, even to new worlds 
yet undreamed of. Under the banner of Jesus, Colum- 
bus was sent forth by Queen Isabella in quest of new 
peoples to be brought to Christianity. '^ We are knit 
together as a body in a most sacred covenant of the 
Lord," exclaimed the leader of the Pilgrims, who, many 
years after Columbus, made the beginnings of New 
England on the coast of North America. 

Questions and Exercises 

L I. Study the first paragraph of this chapter carefully and 
then try to tell what Is meant by the word "culture" as used in 
the title of the chapter. 2. In the second paragraph, a distinction 
Is made between "practical arts" and "fine arts" ; name as many 
practical arts as you can think of; as many fine arts. What 
would you say are the chief differences between the two ? 
3. Irrigation of land Is one of the Important practical arts that 
have come down to us from very ancient times ; what is meant 
by Irrigating land ? In what parts of our country are farmers 
compelled to depend upon Irrigation ? Find pictures of Irrigating 
ditches In your geographies. 4. Why are fertilizers so Important 
in farming ^ What usually happens to farm lands that are used 
year after year for the same crops without the aid of fertilizers ? 
5. Wliy is it Important to break up the soil as finely as possible 
if crops are to be raised most profitably ^ How does the modern 
farmer break up the soil ? 6. What animals are used by the 
farmers in your region as "draught animals" — that is, to pull 
loads ^ What modern machinery is used also for this purpose } 
For how long a time has such machinery been in general use ? 
7. Certain farm animals are important as suppliers of food rather 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 107 

than to draw loads ; name the most important of these. Are 
any animals used on farms to-day that were not known to the 
ancients ? 8. What are the most important changes that 
modern civilization has brought about in the domestic arts ? (In 
Chapter xiii you will be told some of the changes that have been 
brought about in the making of cloth.) How does the preparation 
of food in these days differ from that of ancient times ^ What 
differences are there in "table manners".? What are the chief 
differences in furniture .? 

II. I. Study the picture of the Greek temple on p. 97. In 
what ways did this building differ from a modern church .'* 

2. Find out whether there are any buildings in your neighborhood 
that represent in any way the Greek architecture. (Wherever 
columns are used for porticoes or porches, the "capitals" or tops 
of the columns are often copied after the old Greek models.) 

3. Compare the seating capacity of the Colosseum at Rome with 
that of the largest hall or auditorium with which you are familiar. 

4. The ancients had no buildings like the great "sky-scrapers" 
of modern American cities ; find out how it is possible to build 
these high buildings, and what materials modern builders use that 
were not known to the ancients. 5. Primitive artists living 
in the Old Stone Age drew much more lifelike pictures of men 
and animals (see p. 37) than did the Egyptian artists (see p. 82) ; 
why are the Egyptian pictures so "stiff" and formal .? Why were 
the Greeks better artists than the Egyptians .? 6. What kinds 
of pictures do we have to-day that were unknown to the ancients .? 

III. I. Can you explain why the development of the art of 
writing was one of the greatest of all advances in civilization .? 
2. Why was phonetic writing so great an advance over picture 
writing ? Experiment by trying to tell, entirely by pictures, of 
an experience that you have had and then by making a written 
account of the same experience. 3. How was knowledge passed 
on from person to person and from generation to generation before 
the invention of writing .? Why would this process make the pres- 



Io8 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

ervation of accurate knowledge difficult ? What Is meant by 
a myth ? What myths have you read ? 4. Why is so much of 
the early literature in the form of poetry ? (Which is the easier 
for you to memorize, prose or poetry?) 5. What are some of 
the important differences between the work of a poet and that of 
a playwright ? Between the work of a philosopher and that of 
an historian ? 6. What great invention of modern times has 
made possible a true "democracy of knowledge " (p. 87) that was 
impossible even among the ancient peoples who had developed 
the art of writing ? 7. Make a list of the ways in which education 
in ancient times differed from education as carried on to-day. 
8. What great question of government did the Greek philosophers 
study and write about ? Which of the two views presented on 
pp. 94-95 seems to be the more generally favored to-day .? 

IV. I. What sentence In the second paragraph under the 
heading "Ancient Religions and Christianity" explains why the 
belief in many gods was so widespread among the ancients t 

2. What are the most important differences between the religions 
of the ancients and the religions of civilized people of to-day.? 

3. In what country did the Hebrews originally live.? How did 
their religion differ from that of most other ancient peoples t 

4. Under what government were the Hebrews at the time of the 
birth of Christ.? 5. Why did the teachings of Christ spread so 
rapidly.? 6. What is meant by "persecution," and why were 
the early Christians persecuted .? Do you know of any peoples 
in recent history that have been persecuted because of their re- 
ligion .? 7. Explain why the oldest and largest of the Christian 
denominations is known to-day as the Roman Catholic Church. 

Geographical Studies 

I. Make a list of all the names of places that occur in this chap- 
ter. Look them up on the maps on pp. 46, 48, and 53. Try to 
decide in advance which of these three maps you should consult 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS 109 

before looking up each name. 2. Then consult the maps in your 
textbook in geography and see which places on the list are still 
known by the same names. For example, Nineveh occurs on the 
map on p. 46, but there is no modern city of that name ; Rome, 
on the other hand, occurs both on ancient and on modern maps 
of Italy. 

Suggestions for Review of Chapters I-IV 

1 . Have a line seven feet in length drawn on the blackboard. Let 
this line represent the period of recorded history. Place at the 
left end 5000 B.C. as the date that scholars assign to the first 
Egyptian kings. Place at the right end of the line the date of 
the present year. The date of the birth of Christ will be placed 
five feet from the left end of the line, indicating the point that 
divides the "b.c" and "a.d." periods. Place at the proper 
points on the line the following dates, indicating what each stands 
for: 2300 B.C. (Babylon); 753 b.c. (beginnings of Rome); 323 
B.C. (death of Alexander); 44 b.c (death of Caesar); 313 a.d. 
(the Roman empire officially accepts Christianity) ; 476 a.d. 
(fall of the Roman empire) ; 1492 a.d. ; 1776 a.d. If the black- 
board is long enough, it would be interesting to continue a dotted 
line to the left eighteen feet farther. The end of this dotted 
line would represent the date 23,000 b.c, which most scholars 
believe to be within the period of the Old Stone Age in Europe. 
It should be remembered, however, that the dotted line represents 
the prehistoric period, about which our actual knowledge is very 
slight. 

2. The pupils who have studied carefully the four preceding 
chapters have now what might be called a "speaking acquaintance" 
with some very interesting and important persons. If they wish 
to become better acquainted with these persons, the class may 
well be divided into "reception committees," each of which will 
be responsible for bringing one of these historic characters to the 
class by finding and reporting the interesting facts about his life, 



no OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

and especially the reasons which explain why his fame has lived 
for so long a time. The following are suggested : Homer ; Soc- 
rates ; Plato; Aristotle; Alexander the Great; Phidias; Julius 
Caesar ; Paul the Apostle ; Galen ; Constantine the Great. 

Suggestions for Reading 

for pupils 

Myths and Legends 

Baker, Emilie Kip — Stories of Greece and Rome ; Macmillan. 
Best, S. M. — Glorious Greece and Imperial Rome; Macmillan. 
BuLFiNCH — The Golden Age ; Stokes. 
Church, A. J. — The Aeneid for Boys and Girls ; Macmillan. 

The Story of the Iliad; Macmillan. 

The Story of the Odyssey ; Macmillan. 
CoLUM, Padraic — The Golden Fleece; Macmillan. 

The Children's Homer; Macmillan. 
Gayley, C. M. — Classic Myths in English Literature ; Ginn. 
Harding, C. H. and S. B. — Stories of Greek Gods, Heroes, and 

Men;. Scott Foresman. 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel — The Wonder Book; Macmillan. 
KiNGSLEY, Charles — The Heroes ; Macmillan. 
KuPFER, Grace H. — Stories of Long Ago; Heath. 

Greece 

Ashley, R. L. — Early European Civilization, iv, viii. 
Hall, Jennie — Men of Old Greece; Little Brown. 
Macgregor, Mary — The Story of Greece ; Stokes. 
O'Neill, Elizabeth — The Story of the World, iii-ix ; Putnam. 
Tappan, Eva M. — The Story of the Greek People; Houghton 

Mifflin. 
Van Loon — The Story of Mankind {School edition), xiv-xvii. 



THE CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS ill 

Rome 

Ashley — Early European Civilization, ix, xii, xiii. 

Harding, C. H. and S. B. — The City of the Seven Hills ; Scott 

Foresman. 
LovELL, Isabel — Stories in Stone from the Roman Forum; Mac- 

mlllan. 
Macgregor, Mary — The Story of Rome; Stokes. 
O'Neill — The Story of the World, Ix-xvii ; Putnam. 
Tappan, Eva M. — The Story of the Roman People; Houghton 

Mifflin. 
Van Loon — The Story of Mankind (School edition), xxii-xxvi. 

Christianity 

Hodges, George — When the King Came; Houghton Mifflin. 
Smith, N. A. — Old, Old Tales from the Old, Old Book; Doubleday 

Page. 
Tappan, Eva M. — The Old, Old Story Book; Houghton Mifflin. 
The Christ Story; Houghton Mifflin. 

Education and School Life 
Smith, D. E. — Number Stories of Long Ago; Ginn. 

for teachers 

BoTSFORD — A Brief History of the World, iii-x. 
Breasted, J. H. — Ancient Times; Ginn. 



CHAPTER V 
THE MIDDLE AGES : FEUDALISM AND THE CHURCH 

While Christianity was spreading throughout Europe 
and the power of the pope at Rome was growing, the 
great Roman empire was faUing to pieces. H you 
will look at the map showing Europe and western 
Asia in about the year 400 A.D.(p. 53), you will find that 
empire stretching all the way from Scotland through 
France, Italy, Greece, Palestine, and Arabia to the 
Persian Gul«f . It embraced all Europe west of the Rhine 
and south of the Danube. Most of the region east 
and north of these rivers was inhabited by numerous 
tribes of whom little was known except that they were 
warlike and barbaric. 

If you will then contrast this map with the other 
one of the same territory, showing the state of things 
about 800 years later, namely 1200 a.d. (facing p. 116), 
you will be struck by the changes. The solid unit 
of the Roman empire has disappeared. The map 
of Europe looks instead like a piece of patchwork. 
Within the borders of the old Roman empire and to 
the northeast, there have come hundreds of independent 
states and principalities. Some of them are so small 



FEUDALISM AND THE CHURCH 113 

that they can be shown only on a large wall map. At 
the head of each one is a prince bearing some such 
title as king, duke, count, or margrave. 

The period between the fall of Rome and the rise of 
modern nations is called the middle ages or the medieval 
period. No exact date can be fixed for its beginning or 
its end. It is hard to say just when the Roman empire 
disappeared because it went to pieces so gradually. 
Neither is it easy to say when the modern period began. 
Roughly speaking, however, the period between 410 
A.D. and the discovery of America may be called here 
the middle ages. 

Feudalism 

The Decline of Rome. What had happened in 
the intervening years to bring about such astounding 
changes as these shown on our maps t First of all 
had been the decline and fall of the empire itself. The 
great line of Roman emperors died out and left no one 
powerful enough to carry on the task of governing 
the civilized world. The old Roman families that 
had once been leaders both in times of war and in 
times of peace had fewer and fewer children to follow 
in their steps. Finally they almost disappeared as 
a class, and no other leaders arose to take their places. 
The Roman farmers, who had once been the mainstay 
of the country, declined in numbers. Those that 
remained generally lost their lands and berame bond- 
men or went into the cities to swell the ranks of the 



114 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

poor. The army, formerly composed of free Roman 
citizens who loved their country, became a band of paid 
soldiers. Many of them had come from foreign lands 
and sold their services to the highest bidder. They 
sometimes even sold the office of emperor itself, for 
they finally became the masters of Rome. 

Moreover, the Roman people lost their old, simple 
ways of living and joined in a mad scramble for wealth 
and luxury. Sons and daughters of men who had 
once defended Rome or had faithfully served the 
government, came to think only of rich food, expen- 
sive clothes, exciting games, and idleness. At the 
very time the Romans were learning to prefer easy 
living, the supply of slaves to do the hard work fell 
off. As the army no longer conquered new peoples, 
the stream of bond servants which had flowed into the 
Roman slave market dried up. The Romans had 
become too spoiled by slavery to do the work that the 
slaves had done. 

Finally, the distant provinces began to revolt. 
They had been systematically robbed by their Roman 
governors and had grown to hate these masters. The 
army, which ceased to be able to defend Rome itself, 
was less able to defend Roman rule in far-off lands. 

When the provinces dropped off one by one, the 
merchants and bankers of Rome lost their business. 
Their magnificent buildings slowly decayed. No new 
public monuments and palaces were erected. Those 
that had once been the grandeur of the Eternal City 



FEUDALISM AND THE CHURCH 115 

sank down to earth in hopeless wreckage. Rome 
ceased to produce poets, orators, historians, and great 
writers of every kind. The splendor of Rome was 
gone, leaving behind nothing but the magic of her 
great name. 

The Germanic Invasions. As the strength of 
Rome's armies fell off, her enemies grew in number. 
The Germanic tribes beyond the Rhine and the 
Danube had long beaten against Rome's bor- 
ders. Finally they broke into the empire in hordes. 

The barbarian invasion, however, did not occur all 
at once or in the same way. Thousands of Germans 
went into the Roman empire very much as immigrants 
come into the United States to-day, singly and in bands. 
They were attracted by the opportunities of Rome. 
Others went because they preferred the peace of the 
empire to the endless and cruel wars of their native 
lands. 

Thousands of Germans, organized as tribes — Goths, 
Franks, Angles, and Saxons, — invaded Roman terri- 
tory under powerful and daring chieftains. One of 
these bands, the West Goths, commanded by Alaric, 
even captured and looted the city of Rome itself in 
410 A.D. Thus the very spot from which Roman 
armies had once gone forth to subdue the earth was 
itself in the hands of conquerors. '' Nations innumer- 
able and savage beyond measure," exclaimed the 
Christian monk, St. Jerome, '' have invaded all Gaul. 
The whole region between the Alps and the Pyrenees, 



Il6 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

the ocean and the Rhine has been devastated. . . . 
O wretched empire !" 

Feudal Princes. There was now no Roman empire 
stretching from Scotland to Arabia. It is true that 
emperors long ruled with much pomp at the new capital, 
Constantinople, but they had little influence on affairs 
in Europe. In the place of the western empire there 
were hundreds of little kingdoms and principalities. 
There were hundreds of petty princes installed in 
stone castles and ruling tiny domains by the sword. 
The peace of the Roman empire had gone and with 
it Roman citizenship, once a thing of pride and 
power. The little states built amid the ruins of 
the empire were always at war with one anocher. 
The inhabitants of each were forced to obey the local 
prince, or feudal lord. 

The system of princely rule, born of warfare, arose 
in different ways. In some cases, a German warrior 
surrounded himself with fighting men. They con- 
quered a piece of Roman territory. The chief took 
a large part of the land for himself and divided the 
rest among his followers. Each of his men swore 
fealty and promised to help the overlord in defending 
their common domains. 

In other cases, the feudal chieftain was a former 
Roman citizen who, in the general smash of his country, 
rose to the top as a fighting man and leader of fighting 
men. Roman citizens, frightened at the general dis- 
order, flocked to him and placed themselves and their 




EuR( 




3 A.D. 



I^rma, i i;<>..A'..X. 



FEUDALISM AND THE CHURCH 



117 



lands under his protection. He promised to defend 
them and they, in turn, pledged themselves to aid him 
with men and money. Sometimes one man with his 

followers swore 

fealty to another, 
and the latter with 
all his underlings 
would subject him- 
self to a still more 
powerful man. 
Thus it happened 
that B would hold 
land from A ; C 
from B ; D from 
C ; and so on, mak- 
ing a long line of 
lords under a single 
great leader. 

The chief busi- 
ness of the feudal 
lord was fighting 
to get land and to 
keep it. Valor in 
battle and loyalty 
to his superior, if he had one, were his striking 
virtues. By warfare he added to his wealth and 
increased his renown. Therefore feudal princes were 
engaged in endless conflicts among themselves. For a 
thousand years and more Europe was given over to 




An old print 



Feudal Lords Fighting 



Il8 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

fighting and pillaging. Princely families rose, seized 
huge territories, and in turn were either conquered by 
stronger families or completely destroyed. 

Since it was chiefly the strong who were victorious, 
there slowly came to power a few masterful men. They 
made themselves the ruling monarchs of whole nations, 
like the English, the French, and the Spanish. Of 
these kings and their part in history, we shall say more 
later. 

The Serf and the Manor. The domain of a feudal 
lord, in any part of Europe during the middle ages, 
was a single village or collection of villages. It was 
inhabited by peasants who tilled the soil. Every 
village, moreover, belonged to a lord. The villagers 
were serfs. Each man and his family were bound to 
the village. They could not leave it and take up their 
abode elsewhere without the consent of the lord. No 
one could marry without his approval. Each family 
had a certain amount of land, in addition to a cottage 
or hut and garden. For the use of this land the serf 
family had to pay the lord in crops and in labor on the 
land which he reserved for himself. The serf's payment 
in labor was usually very heavy. Often it amounted 
to five days a week in harvest time. Thus little time 
was left for tilling his own soil. He could not sell any 
cattle without his lord's permission. If he committed 
an offense, he was likely to be tried and punished in a 
court held by the lord's bailiff or agent. 

In exchange for these heavy duties, the serf's family 



FEUDALISM AND THE CHURCH 



119 



had certain advantages. The lord was bound to pro- 
tect it against invaders. At all events, the serf and 
his sons did not have to render military services. The 







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hH^Hb "^ M 


^^B ^'^ilK^^'' ^ %^N 


V 


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Hlii^Hiil^HHIJ^^^H^^^^^^H 



The Armor of a Feudal Warrior 



Metropolitan Mmeum 



family was, furthermore, sure of its cottage and plot 
of ground and a bare living if it could be had from the 
land. The old people were not turned out to starve or 



I20 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

carted off to the poorhouse. Certain holidays ordered 
by the Church broke the dull monotony of heavy 
labor and gave opportunities for rest and festivities, 

When toil remitting lent its turn to play 

And all the village train from labor free 

Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree. 

Still, at best, it was a crude and toilsome life. The 
cottage was merely four bare walls with a thatched 
roof. No books or papers enlivened the routine of 
life. Seldom, in fact, could a serf read or write. Little 
did he know about the great world beyond his horizon. 
Little did he know about the chemistry of the soil at 
his feet or improving the breed of his cattle. He 
was not a citizen ; merely a subject. He was not 
expected to take any interest in public affairs or to 
hope for any improvement in his lot. An old English 
couplet about the '' squire " or landlord described his 
fate in simple words : 

God bless the squire and his relations 
And keep us all in our proper stations. 

The Village. There are many parts of Europe to-day 
where one may see a village practically as it was in 
the middle ages, with a feudal castle standing in its 
midst. From what we can observe and from books 
and pictures that have been saved, we can see through 
the mind's eye the medieval villages. 

Let us make an imaginary journey to one of them 
in France. It is on a plain at the foot of a high hill. 



FEUDALISM AND THE CHURCH 



121 



The cottages are all alike. They are small and 
built of stone or of wood and plaster. The roofs are 
made of thatched straw. They have no glass windows, 
only small openings in the walls fitted with heavy 




1:m an Old Fklnlii \ illaol To-day 

wooden shutters. The houses are all huddled together 
along a narrow unpaved lane. The barns are attached 
to the houses and the people live close neighbors to 
the cows, horses, pigs, and goats. In rainy weather 
the lane is a quagmire, and in summer the odors of 
the village are sickening. 

The rooms of each cottage are low and dark. On 



122 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



the ground floor there is a kitchen, dining room, and 
bedroom combined. In the smoky fireplace hangs 
an iron pot in which most of the family cooking is 
done. In a loft up under the thatch is a room in which 
the children sleep. When it rains, water leaks in upon 
them. At best, it is dark and airless. The food of 




European Women Still Washing in the Medieval Way 

the family is simple and coarse — porridge, soup, 
bread, and wine. Often all the family eat out of the 
same pot. 

The housewife performs her labors in the very hardest 
way. She carries water from a distant well or stream. 
She has few pots and pans and dishes. She has to 
" break her back " washing clothes in a near-by stream, 
and is grateful if it is not dirtier than her weekly bundle. 



FEUDALISM AND THE CHURCH 123 

To her household duties, she adds digging, sowing, 
and reaping with the men in the fields. All through 
the long ages woman has carried this double burden. 
She was carrying it when Caesar's legions marched 
through her village to conquer Britain. She carried it 
all through the middle ages. She carries it to-day 
as the American tourist, wrapped in a cloud of dust, 
rolls past in his automobile. 

Outside the village are the fields stretching away 
in small plots. There are also a meadow for the 
village cattle and a forest which supplies wood for 
winter time. From the hillside merrily tumbles a 
little stream of water, which renders the village a 
fourfold service. At the entrance of the village, some 
of it is drawn off to a wooden trough from which the 
household needs of the people are supplied. After 
crossing the narrow road under a stone bridge, it turns 
the landlord's mill at which the grain is ground. Then 
it spreads out over a pebbly bottom where the peasants' 
clothes are washed. Finally it winds through the 
meadow where graze the village flocks and herds. 

Near by is the village church standing in the yard 
where sleep the dead of many a century. On a moss- 
covered stone, perhaps, one may find a striking epitaph 
written in memory of some beloved one whose bones 
were dust long before America was discovered. In the 
early morning, the church bell announces the matin serv- 
ice. In the evening, it ''tolls the knell of parting day." 
On Sundays, it summons all the village folk to service. 



124 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 




The Castle. High on the rocks above the village 
looms the castle in which dwell the lord of the village, 
his family, and his warriors. On every side massive 



FEUDALISM AND THE CHURCH 125 

walls rise straight from the steep rocks. At each of 
the corners is a high tower where sentinels watch for 
approaching enemies. At the entrance is a heavy draw- 
bridge which is let down over a deep ditch, or moat, 
filled with water. Within the fortress is the castle it- 
self. It is built around a courtyard. Its walls are eight 
or ten feet thick, pierced here and there by narrow 
slits which let in the only daylight the residents enjoy. 
In one corner of the castle is a great dining hall heated 
in winter by an immense fireplace. On one side is a 
chapel in which the lord's private chaplain performs 
religious services for the family. In another corner 
are the sleeping quarters of the lord and his family 
and followers, or retainers. Near the dining hall are 
the kitchen and the rooms of the army of servants. 

Life in this gloomy pile is by no means as happy as 
it often appears in fairy stories. Except in the warmest 
summer weather, the rooms are cold, damp, and cheer- 
less. Aching limbs are more common than joyful 
hearts. The only light at night is from candles that 
flicker and sputter in the ceaseless drafts of chilling air. 
Musicians may enliven the evening meals with merry 
strains, and a dance of the knights and ladies may 
follow the repast. On the whole, however, life is 
deadly dull. The fighting men are overjoyed when 
they are summoned to the walls to defend the castle 
against an advancing enemy, or are ordered in martial 
array to storm the stronghold of a neighboring lord, 
or to go on a long crusade to Jerusalem. 



126 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

The Medieval Church 

The Conversion of the Barbarians. While the 
feudal lords were building up their power, the Church 
was slowly uniting them in certain ways. As we have 
seen, the Christian religion was adopted by the Roman 
emperors and made the only lawful religion of the 
whole empire. The early apostles and teachers had 
succeeded beyond their dreams ; but they left to 
those who came after them the task of converting the 
rest of the known world. This work was carried on by 
missionaries. For more than two hundred years they 
kept heroically at it, suffering, for their great cause, 
hardships that beggar description. They went into 
the dark forests of Germany. They pressed northward 
till they reached the ice-locked lands of the Arctic 
circle. They journeyed westward, carrying the cross 
of Christ to the uttermost parts of Britain, Ireland, 
and the neighboring islands. 

Though the missionaries preached to the people in 
the highways and byways, they made a special effort 
to reach the hearts of the barbarian war leaders. 
Whenever a prince was converted, he ordered his 
subjects baptized in his faith. Thus, for instance, did 
Clovis, the king of the Franks, who invaded ancient 
Gaul. One day, in 496, while he was in a desperate 
battle, things were going badly for him. As his wife 
had been converted to Christianity by some mission- 
aries, it occurred to him that her God might help him 



FEUDALISM AND THE CHURCH 



127 



in his trials. Thereupon he appealed to Jesus for aid 
and declared that, if victorious in battle, he would 
accept the Christian faith. He flung himself with re- 
newed energy into 
the fray, and de- 
feated his enemies. 
Then, according 
to his pledge, he 
and his warriors, 
numbering, it is 
said, three thou- 
sand, were at once 
baptized. So it 
happened that the 
missionaries sub- 
dued the barba- 
rians and united 
them with Rome 
after the Roman 
armies had failed. 
About a hun- 
dred years later, 
a band of mission- 
aries under a fa- 
mous monk, Augustine, landed on the shores of Britain. 
That island, though once Roman, had now been 
conquered by the Angles and Saxons from the 
German forests. The monks were received by 
Ethelbert, king -of Kent, who listened patiently to 




Frura an old print 

Ethelbert Listening to Christian Missionaries 



128 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

their sermons. When they asked him to forsake his 
old gods, he hesitated, saying : " Your words are fair, 
but they are of new and doubtful meaning." A year 
passed before he accepted the new religion. When he 
did decide at last in favor of Christianity, thousands 
of his subjects flocked to the monks to be baptized. 
Thus the conversion of the English was begun. By 
the year looo the work of the missionaries in western 
Europe was completed. Rome was again its ruler — 
the ruler of its mind and spirit. 

The Pope. At the head of all W^estern Christendom 
was the pope at Rome. His powers were immense. 
He could make laws which all Christians had to obey. 
He was a high judge to whom Christians could appeal 
in matters of religion. As the representative of God 
on earth, he claimed an authority far superior to that 
of mere earthly kings. Indeed, he could free a king's 
subjects from their oaths of allegiance and outlaw a 
king before the world. As head of the Church, he owned 
a vast amount of property and drew huge revenue 
from faithful Christians. He had territories and an 
army and waged war on kings and emperors in defense 
of his rights and powers. 

The Clergy. The affairs of the Church were managed 
according to carefully laid plans. All Christendom 
was laid out into large districts, known as archbishoprics, 
each presided over by an archbishop. This great 
domain was in turn subdivided into bishoprics, at the 
head of each of which was a bishop. The bishopric 



FEUDALISM AND THE CHURCH 



129 



was, in turn, composed of villages, each with its church 
and parish priest. All those who labored officially 
in the Church, from the humblest village priest to the 
pope at Rome, were known as the clergy and formed a 
distinct class. No 
one could enter it 
without a special 
training and with- 
out having the ap- 
proval of church 
authorities. 

The powers of the 
clergy were numer- 
ous and important. 
They baptized, mar- 
ried, and buried all 
Christians. They 
could impose cer- 
tain penalties upon 
church members for 
disobedience. Ac- 
cording to the theory 
of the Church, they 
could, in effect, 
close the gates of 
heaven to the unfaithful and condemn wrong-doers 
to everlasting punishment. They alone could perform 
the religious services upon which the salvation of the 
people depended. The range of this vast power was 




From an old print 

The Supremacy of the Pope : a King 
AT HIS feet 



I30 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

set forth in a celebrated document published by the 
pope in 1302 : '' That there is one holy Catholic and 
apostolic Church we are impelled by our faith to believe 
and hold ... and outside of this there is neither 
salvation nor remission of sins. . . . We, moreover, 
proclaim, declare, and pronounce that it is altogether 
necessary to salvation for every human being to be 
subject to the Roman pontiff." 

In every country the clergy owned a great deal of 
property — lands and houses given to the Church by 
pious donors. They collected tithes from the people 
for the support of the Church. They charged certain 
fees for marriages, burials, and other services. Taken 
together, their wealth rivaled that of kings and nobles. 
They held courts in which many matters, such as dis- 
putes over property left by dead men, were settled. 
They were the teachers in schools and they wrote 
nearly all the books. In whole communities they were 
the only people who knew how to read or write ; who 
knew anything outside the bare routine of living. They 
were the only class dedicated to the work of helping 
suffering mankind, and to them the poor and afflicted 
turned for aid and consolation. Because of their 
wealth, because of their control over the minds and 
hearts of people, and because of their services, the 
clergy were very powerful during the middle ages. 

The Monks and Nuns. In the early days of 
Christianity many men grew weary of the troubles 
of the world and withdrew to solitary places to live 



FEUDALISM AND THE CHURCH 131 

simply and think only of religious matters. Such 
persons were known as monks — a term derived from a 
Greek word meaning " solitary." Often a number of 
them would join in a brotherhood and build for them- 
selves a house or monastery in some secluded spot. 

From time to time there arose new leaders who 
preached a new gospel of Christian duty and collected 
followers about them. Among such leaders was St. 
Benedict, who founded the order of Benedictine monks 
in Italy about 529. Another was St. Francis of Assisi, 
who established the Franciscan order in 1210. A 
third was Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish soldier and priest, 
who planned in 1534 the Society of Jesus, the members 
of which are known as Jesuits. 

Somewhat in the same way, women often dedicated 
themselves to a religious life as nuns. They founded 
convents where they lived and worked. They too had 
many different orders as new teachers appeared from 
time to time. 

It is impossible to describe in a paragraph the work 
of the monks and nuns, for their labors varied according 
to their several purposes. Some took vows of poverty 
and devoted themselves to helping the unfortunate. 
Others were missionaries to the heathen. Others 
spent their time laboring on their lands, copying or 
writing books, or making beautiful tapestries and laces. 
To their care we owe the preservation of most of the 
books that have come down to us from Greek and 
Roman times. 



132 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Only within the walls of the monastery or convent 
could those who were heartily sick of the endless feudal 
wars find peace. Only there could they have freedom 
to live lives of scholarship and helpfulness. In time, 
every country in Europe was dotted with monasteries 
and convents. The various orders grew rich with 
gifts made to them by pious persons. 

The Laymen. All the people outside the clerical 
class were known as laymen. They were all subject 
to the rules and laws of the Church. All were church 
members, for no one was allowed to choose his own 
faith or to say that he would have none at all. All 
had to attend church and to give money to its support. 
No one could dispute or even question the authority 
of the clergy. Any one who was bold enough to deny 
the Catholic faith was summoned before a court and 
tried as a heretic. If he confessed that he was in error, 
he was received back into the Church but forced to do 
a heavy penance. If he refused to confess that he 
was wrong, he was handed over to the government to 
be punished. 

In religion, therefore, as in other matters, the common 
people of the middle ages were subject to higher author- 
ities. They did not elect the lord of the village who 
governed them. Neither did they elect the village 
priest who had the care of their souls in his charge. 
Great teachers of the Church, like St. Thomas Aquinas, 
held that the people would begin to quarrel unless 
bound together by some one of superior rank. They 



FEUDALISM AND THE CHURCH 



133 



taught that '' the rule of one is more beneficial than 
the rule of many." At the same time, they also said 
that it was the 
duty of the ruler to 
consider the good 
of his subjects. 

The Unity of 
Christendom. Per- 
haps the most re- 
markable feature 
of the medieval 
Church was its 
unity. All na- 
tions, all races, all 
sorts and condi- 
tions of people in 
western Europe 
were brought to- 
gether by this one 
religious bond. 
There was one 
head of the Church. 
There was one faith. 
There was one language, both for the services of the 
Church and the learning of the clergy. That was 
Latin. Those who could speak Latin were equally at 
home with the priests of London, Paris, or Rome. 
There was one law of the Church for all Christians. 
There was one Christian ideal set before mankind. In 




From an old pnnt 
One Law for All Christians 



134 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

this respect, therefore, the Roman Catholic Church 
kept alive one idea of the Roman empire — a world 
united under one great authority. 

The Church as a Check on the Government. Though 
the medieval clergy were friendly to kings and feudal 
princes, still they strongly held to their own rights 
and property. In this, Christianity differed from all 
the religions of antiquity. In Rome and Greece, the 
priests were servants of the government. They took 
orders ; they did not give orders. No Roman priest 
in pagan days ever thought of telling the emperor 
his duty. The popes and clergy of the middle ages, 
on the contrary, often assumed the right to criticize 
the conduct of kings and their officers and to call them 
to account for their misdeeds. In this way the Church 
became a sort of restraint on the government, a critic 
of the civil officers. This was a great departure from 
the state of things that had lasted for centuries among 
the nations of antiquity. In time, as we shall see, 
the clergy and some of the kings had a great quarrel 
on this point. This quarrel ended in breaking Western 
Christendom apart. 

Questions and Exercises 

I. I. Suppose that you had been a Roman citizen at the 
time of Rome's greatness, and suppose that you then knew 
what we now know of the causes that led to the decline and fall of 
Rome ; what advice would you have given to your countrymen ? 
2. One of the great lessons that history teaches is that slavery 
is even worse for the masters than for the slaves ; why does slav- 



FEUDALISM AND THE CHURCH 135 

ery have so unfortunate an effect upon slave owners ? Lincoln 
once said : "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a mas- 
ter. That is my idea of democracy." Can you think of any 
other things besides holding slaves that a true believer In de- 
mocracy would not do? 3. Try to Imagine what life in your 
state would be like if the feudal system of the middle ages were 
still in existence. Think of yourself as a farmer living under 
such conditions. You would probably live In a village and go 
out with other farmers to work in the surrounding fields every 
day. How does this differ from the way in which most Ameri- 
can farmers live to-day ^ Why did nearly every one live In towns 
or villages in feudal times .? What rights and privileges do free 
citizens have to-day that the serfs of feudal times did not have f 
What duties do free citizens have that serfs did not have ? 

IL I. "While the feudal lords were building up their power, the 
Church was slowly uniting them In certain ways" (p. 126). Ex- 
plain this statement and tell In what ways the Church united the 
people living in western Europe. 2. Give as many reasons as 
you can explaining why the clergy had so much power In the 
middle ages. 3. What are the differences in the meanings of 
the following words: bishops, priests, monks, and nuns; mon- 
asteries and convents; clergy and laymen? 4. In western Eu- 
rope during the middle ages there were many governments and 
many languages, but only one religion ; how does this condition 
contrast with the condition of our country to-day.^ 5. What 
is meant by the word Christendom ? (Think of other words that 
have the same ending, such as kingdom, earldom, dukedom.) 
Though all the nations of Europe to-day, except Turkey, are 
Christian nations, could we properly speak of Europe as Chris- 
tendom .^ Give reasons for your answer. 

Geographical Studies 

I. I. Why can the Roman empire be shown on a one-page 
map while medieval Europe (a much smaller territory) requires 



136 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

a two-page map? 2. On p. 112 you are asked to compare the 
map of the Roman empire (p. 53) with the map of medieval 
Europe facing p. 116. Compare it also with the map of modern 
Europe facing p. 436. Name the chief medieval and modern 
countries that are included in, or that include, the following prov- 
inces of the Roman empire : Gaul, Dacia, Illyricum, Italy, Thrace. 
3. On p. 115 St. Jerome is quoted as complaining of the invasion 
of Rome by various barbarous tribes. Would you expect to be 
able to locate all these tribes on any one map .? 

Suggestions for Reading 

Benezet, L. p. — The Story of the Map of Europe, ii-vi ; Scott 

Foresman. 
Best, S. M. — The Nations of Western Europe; Macmillan. 
Hall, Hammond — The Boy's Book of Chivalry, i-ix ; Partridge. 
O'Neill, Elizabeth — The Story of the World, xvi-xx ; Putnam. 
Tappan, Eva M. — When Knights Were Bold, i-ix ; Houghton 

Mifflin. 
Van Loon — The Story of Mankind {School edition), xxvi-xxxviii. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE ARTS AND TOWN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 

More than a thousand years lay between the sack 
of Rome by Alaric in 410 and the discovery of America 
by Columbus. During a large part of this time, 
all Europe was in the confusion that followed the 
barbarian destruction of the Roman empire. Man- 
kind was busy with migrations, wars, feuds, and the 
bare struggle for existence. In the midst of this chaos, 
the Catholic Church offered unity, order, and peace. 
The priests and others in the service of the Church 
found the means or the leisure for cultivating the 
finer things of the human spirit. In contrast to the 
varied interests of Greece and Rome, there was in the 
middle ages one supreme interest — the Christian re- 
ligion as interpreted by the Catholic Church. All art, 
all architecture, all literature, all learning, bore the 
stamp of religion. Everything was viewed from the 
standpoint of the Catholic Christian faith. That is 
the striking feature of the middle ages. 

Architecture, Art, and Learning 

Medieval Architecture. As the Greeks devoted their 
noblest energies to erecting temples, so the people of 

137 



138 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



the middle ages devoted theirs to building beautiful 
churches. Christian congregations, as soon as their 




worship became lawful, moved into the temples of 
the Greeks and Romans after tearing down the statues 



ARTS AND TOWN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 139 

of the old gods and making alterations. When they 
began to build for themselves in western Europe, 
they frequently adopted Roman models ; and the 
style of many early Christian churches is for that 
reason called Romanesque. Such structures were 
marked by massive walls and low roofs. They were 
heavy and lacking in grace. 

In the course of time, architects devised a new style 
known as Gothic. They learned how to build high, 
thin walls, supported by buttresses on the outside. 
Their work thus became more flexible. They could 
construct lofty, vaulted roofs and towering spires that 
pointed heavenward. Instead of narrow slits for 
windows, they could make great openings and fill 
them with delicate traceries of stone, lead, and stained 
glass. Therefore we see great differences in the Gothic 
style. Some cathedrals were massive, severe, and 
stately. Others were slender and ornate, like fine 
lace work. 

In religious buildings, architects had the greatest 
opportunities for creative work, because the middle 
ages lavished money mainly upon beautiful churches. 
Yet there was other work to do. There were splendid 
castles to be built for feudal lords. Occasionally, 
also, they were called upon to build town houses for 
merchant princes. Wonderful examples of this form 
of architecture are to be found in Venice and Florence. 
Sometimes they were employed by unions, or gilds, of 
merchants, like the clothiers or goldsmiths, to erect 



140 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



a gild hall in which the members could hold their 
meetings. There were some public buildings, too, 
like town halls and royal palaces. In planning them 
the medieval architect had a chance to make new 
designs. Whether the noblest work of the middle 




St. Marks, in Venice (Showing Byzaxtinl Architecture) 

ages was better than that of the Greeks, each one can 
judge for himself by comparing a Gothic cathedral 
with a Greek temple. 

Art. In painting, as well as in architecture, the 
artists of the middle ages worked out many new and 
interesting ideas. This is true, even though in later 



ARTS AND TOWN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 141 

times they often copied the gorgeous colors, the gold 
and glitter, that came into Italy from Constantinople. 
In most cases they chose for their subjects Biblical 
characters and scenes. They took infinite pains in 
portraying their ideas of the Madonna, of Christ, and 
of interesting events in the growth of the Church. 

For color, form, and beauty, their work stands out 
among the splendid artistic achievements of all times. 
Moreover, there were so many painters of high grade 
and they painted so many pictures that it is hardly 
just to mention any of them without giving a long list. 
Giotto (1276-1337) is distinguished as the founder of 
the Florentine school of painters. Michael Angelo 
(1475-1564) is famous as the decorator of the Sistine 
Chapel in Rome, which may yet be seen in its fading, 
but still wonderful, splendor. Even in Angelo's time, 
the painting was mainly religious ; but more and more 
the artists were painting secular, or non-religious, scenes 
and portraits of eminent laymen. 

. Literature. In literature, as in art and architecture, 
religion stood first. For many a century after the 
decline of Rome, there were no great poets and dram- 
atists. The educated people, nearly all of whom were 
priests, thought chiefly of religious subjects. They 
wrote lives of the saints and martyrs whose labors and 
sacrifices had helped to spread the gospel throughout 
the world. They compiled great works on the theories 
of religion and on the problems of Christian conduct. 
They composed long books on the Bible. They worked 



142 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

out all sorts of theories as to the nature of angels 
and the doings of Satan. Even when they wrote on 
business matters, such as money-lending and selling 
goods, they looked at the subject from the religious 
point of view. This led them to treat fully '' just 
prices " for goods and '' the sin of usury," or high 
interest rates. 

When at length there appeared a great poet, the 
Italian Dante (1265-1321), his theme was still reli- 
gious. Dante's greatest work was his Divine Comedy, 
in which he drew vivid pictures of hell, purgatory, 
and heaven. This was at once hailed as a masterpiece. 
It is still read to-day. It was unique because it was 
written in the language of the people, Italian, instead 
of Latin, the language of the learned. Few European 
poets, certainly no medieval writers, are now more 
widely studied in the United States than is Dante. 
Two great translations have been made by American 
scholars, one of them by the poet Henry Wadsworth 
Longfellow, who organized the first Dante society in 
America. 

Next in bulk to works on religion and the lives of 
saints stood histories and chronicles. Of these every 
European country produced a great quantity during 
the middle ages. Almost every monastery kept a 
chronicle or record of events by years ; from time to 
time some monk would undertake to compile a story 
of mankind from Adam to his own day. Most pf these 
medieval historical works are queer mixtures of truth 



ARTS AND TOWN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 143 

and fiction. They tell of wars, of the work of the clergy, 
of the fortunes of kings and queens, of gifts to churches, 
and of the adventures of mythical heroes. 

Take, for example, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It 
purports to be a history by years from about the birth 
of Christ to the twelfth century, telling especially 
about England. It was written by many men, partly 
from rumor, partly from books, and partly from actual 
knowledge. Most of it is devoted to wars among the 
Anglo-Saxons and to the affairs of the Christian Church 
in England. Some years the chronicler can find nothing 
important to write down, so he enters the year and 
leaves a blank space. In 671, he can only say : " This, 
year was a great destruction among birds " ; but 
this at least is a change from tales of war and piracy. 
In 734, we are told : " This year the moon was as if it 
had been sprinkled with blood." In 793, some one 
wrote : ''Fiery dragons were seen flying in the air." 

Other historical works were ballads reciting the 
brave deeds of kings. These were often sung at court 
to please the monarch who was praised by the bard. 
In none of them do we get a clear and full picture of 
all classes or of the life of the masses. It is mainly 
from laws, account books, tax records, and similar 
documents that we are able to form a correct idea of 
how the people of the middle ages lived in their towns 
and villages. Medieval history did not deal with the 
doings of the common people ; nor was it written for 
their benefit. 



144 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

In addition to religious and historical works, there 
was some writing about the government of mankind. 
The poet Dante, though his fame rests almost entirely 
upon his poetry, was an able writer on politics. He 
believed that peace was necessary to draw out the 
noblest side of human beings ; so he advocated forming 
an empire again, in some respects like that of old Rome. 
At least he thought there should be one high imperial 
ruler who would restrain robbers and warriors and per- 
mit the people to live and work in comfort. In Dante's 
time there also lived another noted political writer, 
Marsiglio of Padua. This author startled the educated 
classes by saying (i) that the purpose of government 
was "the good of the people"; (2) that the whole 
body of the citizens " or the better part of them " 
should be the supreme law-makers ; and (3) that 
even popes should be elected by the people. Indeed, 
there were very few themes that were not touched 
upon by medieval writers in one form or another. 

Schools and Universities. It was a long time after 
the fall of Rome before there appeared in Europe 
schools, colleges, and universities with regular teachers, 
students, and courses of study. Practically all the 
teaching that went on during the dark days of the 
barbarian invasions was the work of individual priests 
and missionaries. They instructed a few followers 
in order to spread the knowledge of Christianity. 

The first schools that deserve the name seem to have 
been founded by wealthy bishops at their cathedrals. 



ARTS AND TOWN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 145 

The main purpose of such a school was to prepare for 
the priesthood ; but sometimes it was attended by 
young princes who wished to master the art of reading 
and writing. King Alfred (below, p. 172), we are told 
by a monk of his time, set a good example ; he sent 
his youngest son to a school to learn " the liberal arts 
before the manly arts, namely, hunting and such pur- 
suits as befit a gentleman." By the year 1500 Europe 
had scores of cathedral schools. Good bishops regarded 
it as both a duty and an honor to give money to them. 

To these institutions the sons of peasants and mer- 
chants came to prepare for the priesthood. That 
was the one career through which they could rise out 
of their classes into the higher ranks. When a serf 
became a priest he was freed from servitude. Feudal 
lords often became angry at losing their bondmen, 
but the bishops paid little heed. They were always 
glad to welcome bright boys from the peasantry because 
the Church had need of able and vigorous men to carry 
on its varied work. 

As the towns grew in size, rich merchants founded 
grammar schools to teach reading, writing, and arith- 
metic. These institutions were open to boys preparing 
for business as well as to those who planned to enter 
the ministry. 

With the passing years, schools for more advanced 
studies were also established. The college or univer- 
sity arose in the middle ages somewhat in this fashion. 
It was the practice of missionaries and learned men to 



146 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

go about teaching, stopping in one town after another 
to instruct any who cared to listen. One taught the 
Old Testament, another grammar, and a third mathe- 
matics. In a very natural way, teachers of different 
subjects began to gather at certain centers, like Paris 
or Oxford. This was a great saving of time for students 
and masters, because all subjects could be studied at 
one place. 

The next step was easily taken. The teachers and 
students of a given city formed a society or union or 
gild known in Latin as a collegium or universitas. 
When that was once done, it was a simple matter to 
arrange a regular course of study through which any 
pupil had to pass in order to become a master himself. 
Indeed, one became " a master of arts " as one became 
a master mason, except that an apprenticeship was 
served in learning rather than in stone cutting. 

At first there were no splendid buildings. Each 
teacher would rent or find a vacant room and lecture 
there. The chief subjects of study were Latin, gram- 
mar, arithmetic, and the writings of the famous Greek 
philosopher, Aristotle (p. 95). There were no printed 
books for the students. The teacher simply read 
his lectures slowly while the pupils laboriously copied 
his sayings word for word. Nothing contrary to the 
teachings of the Church was allowed. Great pains 
were taken to show that there was nothing in the writ- 
ings of the pagan Aristotle that was contrary to the 
Bible or Christianity. Of the vast range of subjects 



ARTS AND TOWN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 147 

like chemistry, botany, physiology, geography, and 
history, very little was said in the medieval universities. 

The Revival of Ancient Learning. About the year 
1400 there opened a new period in the history of learn- 
ing. The learning of the early middle ages, as we have 
seen, had nearly all been in the Latin language. Books 
were written in it ; it was the tongue used in the class- 
rooms all over western Europe. Some of the Greek 
writings were in constant use, but in Latin translations. 
Greek literature as a whole and most of the literature 
of the Romans had been allowed to lie buried in the 
dust of old buildings. The Greek language itself was 
not understood by students in western Europe. Many 
of the ancient writings were not approved by Christian 
teachers because they were the work of scholars who 
lived before Christ. 

Slowly this changed. The learning of the Greeks 
and Romans was made to live again. In the year 
1396, a famous bishop went from Constantinople to 
Florence and began to teach the Greek language and 
literature. Pupils flocked to him ; soon some ventured 
to go to Constantinople itself to study. 

When that city fell into the hands of the Turks in 
1453, Greek scholars fled in crowds to Italy, taking 
their precious books with them. The merchants of 
Venice and Florence were proud to carry cargoes of 
manuscripts along with their bales of silks and spices 
from the Far East. 

Soon the Italian cities were the homes of " a new 



148 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 




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Metropolitan Museum 
Page of a Medieval Book Made by Hand 



ARTS AND TOWN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 149 

learning." About the same time interest in the writ- 
ings of the ancient Romans was awakened. The books 
and papers of Caesar, Cicero, and Tacitus were rescued 
from the dust where they had long been buried, and 
spread far and wide in many editions. 

Thus a new world of ideas and historical events was 
opened to students everywhere. People began to care 
for ancient, or pagan, literature as well as for Christian 
writings. Scholars soon read the poems of Vergil as 
well as the Psalms of the Old Testament and the 
Sermon on the Mount. The stately orations of Cicero 
found a place by the side of the lives of early Christian 
saints and martyrs. 

The Invention of Printing. While the students of 
Europe were in a furor about Greek and Roman writ- 
ings, some patient workmen invented movable type 
and the printing press. Before that time every boo : 
had to be made laboriously by copyists with quill or 
brush. The process was slow and expensive. Innu- 
merable errors crept in as one copy was made from 
another. With movable type, any book could be 
put into type almost as quickly as the old copyist 
could write it down. Once in type and on the press, 
any number of copies could easily be printed. 

Just who it was that deserves the honor of inventing 
printing we know not. Gutenberg and Faust in Ger- 
many and Coster in Holland are among those to whom 
the credit has been given. As in the case of most inven- 
tions, the idea was in the air and many men were at 



ISO 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



work on it. We do know, however, that a Bible was 
printed at Mainz, Germany, in 1456. That year may 
well be taken as opening the age of the printing press. 

Within fifty 
}^ears printing 
presses were set 
up in most of the 
leading cities, and 
it was estimated 
that eight million 
volumes had been 
printed. Books 
became cheap. In- 
terest in reading 
spread steadily 
among the people. 
Printers were 
eager to publish 
books on any sub- 
ject that might 
find a sale. Books 
on travel, on law, 
on Greek and Roman literature, on farm manage- 
ment, on geography, and on medicine began to flow 
from the presses. Learning was no longer confined 
to the clergy nor almost solely to religious subjects. 
After a while books were made even for children. 




Old Houses in Rouen (France) 



ARTS AND TOWN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 151 

Town Life in the Middle Ages 

Growth of Towns. It was mainly in the towns that 
the art and learning of the middle ages flourished. 
Many a Roman city had lived on after the fall of the 
empire, and in the course of time new centers of trade 
also had arisen all over western Europe. Sometimes 
the town was under the protection of a powerful feudal 
lord or even of a king. Sometimes it was under the 
rule of a bishop or archbishop. Again it happened 
that the city and its inhabitants were wholly in- 
dependent. In most cases, the people built a wall 
about their city and were ready to defend it against 
attack. 

In England, the towns of London, York, Lincoln, 
Winchester, and Bristol were leading centers of trade 
as early as the fourteenth century. In Germany, 
there were many wholly independent towns, or free 
cities, among them Cologne and Hamburg. For mu- 
tual aid, a score or more of them formed a union 
known as the Hanseatic League. 

Such trading cities grew more rapidly and easily 
in Italy than elsewhere. Because of their situation 
between the East and the West, the Italians early be- 
came the leading merchants of Europe. From India 
and China they brought spices, precious stones, and 
rich fabrics. They carried these goods by land or 
water to the trading towns of Spain, France, Germany, 
and England. On the east coast rose Venice, " the 



^52 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



queen of the Adriatic," built upon a group of small 
islands for protection against invaders ; Venice in time 
became rich and powerful. On the west coast there 
flourished a rival in Genoa, the nursery of hardy sail- 
ors, and the birthplace of Columbus. Pisa, Florence, 




o Novgorod 

RUSSIA 



ENERAL ORAFTINS CO. INC . 



Trading Centers in the Middle Ages 



and Milan were also centers of commerce, art, and 
literature. 

The Merchants. It was in the towns that there 
grew up the class of merchants and business men who 
were in time to have more wealth and influence than 
the feudal lords. As trade increased, the merchants 



ARTS AND TOWN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 153 

amassed great sums of money. They then began to 
take an interest in many things outside of business. 
They vied with bishops, popes, and princes in encourag- 
ing art. They gave money to painters and sculptors 
and thus enabled them to devote all their time to their 
work. Merchants also sent their sons to college. 
They bought books and the beautiful manuscripts 
made by monks. They founded schools and libraries. 
They lent money to hard-pressed kings and some- 
times became their advisers 

The Merchant Gilds. The power of the merchants 
was increased by their unions. In each town, they 
formed a society or gild (p. 140). Often it happened 
that the gild members were the only voters in the town ; 
in that case, they managed the town government. 
The gild was both a business and a charitable society. 
It laid down rules about the price and quality of goods 
and it aided its sick and unfortunate members. No 
one could carry on business in the town without its 
consent. No new shops could be opened without 
its approval. 

The Artisans. The towns were also the homes of 
the artisans — weavers, smiths, and the like — who 
made the goods which the merchants bought and sold. 
Though business had fallen off in the days of Rome's 
decline, the arts of manufacture were by no means 
lost. With the spread of Christianity, encourage- 
ment was given to craftsmen of every kind. The 
building of churches, cathedrals, and monasteries called 



154 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



for great skill. The gorgeous robes of the priests 
and bishops and the decorations of the churches show 
how clever were the men and women who made them. 

Ma ny of the 
monks spent all 
their time making 
locks, artistic iron 
work, or wood 
carvings. 

Moreover, the 
Christian Church 
promoted honest 
work by teaching 
the dignity of la- 
bor. The Greeks 
and the Romans 
had despised the 
artisan, as we 
have seen. " All 
gains made by 
hired laborers," 
wrote Cicero, '^are 
dishonorable and 
base." Christian- 
ity, on the other 
hand, exalted the 
workman. "To labor is to pray," taught the Church. 
Since they were favored by the Church and given 
markets for their wares by the merchants, craftsmen of 




Mttrupuiuan At useum 

A Gorgeous Clerical Robe 



ARTS AND TOWN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 155 

all kinds flourished. As time passed, they became 
very numerous. This is shown by the names of people 
— Smiths, Fullers, Weavers, Dyers, Carpenters, Tay- 
lors, and Potters. 

As soon as there were several artisans in a medieval 
town, they organized as the merchants did. Their 
society was known as a craft gild. Each trade had 
its gild, which fixed the wages of workmen and made 
sure that good materials were used in all articles. In 
addition to this the gild took care of sick and disabled 
gildsmen and their families. 

The Rise of Democracy in Towns. In the beginning, 
the town was often nothing more than an overgrown 
country village which belonged to the lord or the king. 
Its residents were serfs bound to render services to 
their overlord just like the peasants. Its position on 
a sea, a river, or highway crossing, however, favored 
the rise of trade and industry. In the course of time, 
the townsmen came to demand certain rights of their 
own. These were the easier to win as the rich men of 
the town had money to give in exchange for the favors 
they asked. 

When the townsmen got their rights they had them 
set forth in a charter. The word ''charter" itself comes 
from the Latin word charta, meaning a sheet of paper. 
The charter of a town w^as a document recording the 
rights granted to the inhabitants by the overlord. As 
a rule, the townsmen had to pay for the privileges 
granted to them. 



156 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

These charters varied from place to place. In 
general, they included the right of the townsmen 
(i) to elect a mayor and aldermen ; (2) to hold courts 
for the trial of offenders against the law; (3) to hold 
town meetings ; (4) to collect their own taxes ; and 
(5) to be free from the interference of the lord's steward 
and bailiff. Here was the germ of self-government and 
democracy. Some of the men, at least, could vote and 
have a voice in making laws and laying taxes. Thus 
some of our modern notions of democracy already 
existed in the middle ages. 

Strange to say, the kings actually favored the rise 
of self-governing towns. They were glad to have 
help against powerful nobles. So they were ready to 
grant charters to townsmen and enlist them on the 
royal side in any dispute with the feudal lords. 

Progress in the Towns. The towns were the centers 
of new ideas and new enterprises, as well as the homes 
of budding democracies. The country, on the other 
hand, did not change much from century to century. 
Work went on there in the same way and with the same 
tools. Peasants did not travel or read. If one of 
them wanted to do something other than farm work, it 
was to the town that he went. The peasant's lord 
also clung fast to old-fashioned ways. He looked 
after his estate and waged wars as his father had done 
before him. He sometimes bought rugs or pictures, 
but he seldom changed his ideas or his habits. 

The merchant of the towns was the '' progressive " 



ARTS AND TOWN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 1 57 




158 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

element in every country. He had to read and under- 
stand arithmetic in order to do business. He traveled 
and saw strange parts of the world. He was interested 
in new goods, new inventions, and new markets. He 
was always eager to find other ways of making money. 
The nobleman wanted to fight the Turks because they 
were not Christians. The merchant was ready to do 
business with Turks, Arabs, Hindus, or Chinese — if 
it was profitable. 

Life in the city was more exciting than life in the 
country villages. To the city came merchants and 
travelers from distant lands, bringing stories of strange 
peoples along with their goods to sell. In the streets 
and market places of the towns, the people heard of 
new kinds of articles and new industries. So the no- 
tions of change, of invention, and of adventure stirred 
the minds of the townsmen. Slowly the world was 
getting ready for the modern age of discovery and 
business enterprise. 

Questions and Problems 

L I. Compare the Gothic and Byzantine cathedrals pictured 
on p. 138 and p. 140. Note the differences in the construction 
of the roof, the walls, the windows. Point out the buttresses on 
the Gothic structure. Which is to your mind the more fitting 
for a cathedral : a spire or a dome ? Also study the church 
buildings that you are familiar with and see how many evidences 
of Romanesque architecture you can find (p. 139). 2. Compare 
the picture of the castle on p. 124 with that of the Gothic cathe- 
dral. What are the important differences.^ 3. Dante's Divine 



ARTS AND TOWN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 159 

Comedy was one of the first great books written in a modern 
language ; how long after the fall of Rome did Dante live ? What 
language had been used by writers during all those years ? 
4. What is meant by a "chronicle"? By a "ballad"? 5. Why 
did Marsiglio's theories of government "startle the educated 
classes" of his time ? How do they compare with the views of 
government that are generally held to-day ? 6. The first five 
hundred years of the middle ages are sometimes known as the 
"Dark Ages"; from a study of the text under the heading, 
"Schools and Universities," what reasons can you give for the use 
of the term "Dark Ages" ? What kind of "darkness" is referred 
to ? 7. Aside from the Bible, the principal writings studied in 
the schools of the middle ages were those of Aristotle, and his 
influence on the thinking of educated people was practically su- 
preme up to the time of the Revival of Learning, about 1400. 
How long before this time had Aristotle lived ? 8. How did the 
colleges and universities of the later middle ages differ from the 
colleges and universities of to-day ? 9. What is meant by the 
Revival of Learning ? 10. Why is the date 1453 considered 
an important "key date" in history? 11. The invention of 
printing is recognized as one of the most important events in 
human history ; give as many reasons as you can that will ex- 
plain its importance. Some one has compared the invention of 
writing to opening a door just a little so that "a mere line of 
light" comes "through the chink into a darkened room." "At 
last came a time . . . when the door, at the push of the printer, 
began to open more widely. Knowledge flared up, and as It 
flared it ceased to be the privilege of a favored minority." Ex- 
plain what this means. 

II. I. Why were most of the cities of medieval Europe sur- 
rounded by walls ? What effect would this have upon the growth 
of the cities ? Upon the way in which the people would have to 
live ? Upon the health of the people ? 2. What was meant 
in the middle ages by a "free city"? 3. Printing, as we have 



i6o OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

seen, did something to break down the power of the clergy ; in 
what way did the development of trade and the rise of commercial 
cities help to break down the power of the feudal lords ? 
4. What is meant by a "gild" ? What associations or organiza- 
tions to-day have purposes similar to those of the "merchant 
gilds" of the middle ages? 5. What is the difference between 
a "merchant" and an "artisan" ? Between an "artisan" and an 
"artist" ? Name some of the important artisan trades of to-day. 
Why did the artisan trades develop more during the middle ages 
than in ancient times ? What organizations of to-day correspond 
to the "craft gilds"? 6. What is meant by a "charter"? 
American cities are usually governed under charters ; find out 
by what authorities these charters are granted. How does this 
differ from the way in which medieval charters were granted ? 
7. What is meant by the statement that the government of the 
medieval cities was "the germ of self-government and democ- 
racy"? 8. How did life in the country villages in the middle 
ages differ from life in the large towns and cities ? What are 
some of the important differences to-day in our country between 
country life and city life ? 

Suggestions for Reading 

Church, A. J. — The Crusaders ; Macmillan. 
O'Neill — The Story of the World, xxv. 
Tappan — Heroes of the Middle Ages, xxiii-xxvi. 

When Knights Were Bold, x-xv. 
Van Loon — The Story of Mankind {School edition), xxxviii-xli. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE RISE OF NATIONS 

The King's Part in History. In the middle ages 
— with the warlike lords and princes, the powerful 
Church, and the rival towns — there was growing up a 
new force : the strength of kings. It was the king 
who finally put a stop to much of the local fighting 
that broke out after the fall of the Roman empire. It 
was the king who brought peace again to large sections 
of Europe and bridged the gap between the empire 
of Rome and the modern world. 

In the beginning of his career, the king was merely 
a powerful chieftain. Perhaps he was the head of a 
conquering tribe or a baron more skilled in fighting 
than any of his fellow barons. At all events, his power 
was at first in his sword ; later, after the invention of 
gunpowder in the fourteenth century, in his guns and 
cannon. He added to his territories as he conquered 
one feudal prince after another and broke down the 
walls of their castles with cannon balls. 

When a king had conquered a large area, he did a 
number of things that counted for progress. He 
kept peace among his subjects, which favored both 
agriculture and trade. He coined money and made it 

i6i 



1 62 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

circulate within his realm, thus aiding the merchants. 
In this way, he made it possible for them to trade 
all over his kingdom. He chartered towns. As we 
have seen, this favored the growth of city democracies. 
He battered down the castle walls of robber barons 
perched upon the crags. He thus made the highways 
open and safe for travelers and traders. He amassed 
a large treasury and so had the money to fit out 
ships for exploration. It must not be forgotten that 
all the early explorers who unveiled the New World 
had the aid of kings. 

The king set up a school at his court and encouraged 
scholars to write books and collect maps and records. 
He built highways that were useful for commerce as 
well as for his armies. He aided Christian missionaries, 
thereby helping in the spread of Christianity. As 
we shall see, more than one king quarreled with the 
pope at Rome, and so took the lead in bringing about 
the Protestant Reformation. One need not be blind 
to the cruelties of kings in order to see what a large 
part they played in making the modern world. 

It was around the kings that the nations of western 
Europe grew into strength and unity. First there 
was the unity brought about by the sword. Then came 
unity in language, literature, education, law, the 
administration of justice, the monetary system, com- 
merce, and the strong central government. The 
medieval dream of one European empire disappeared 
before national patriotism. Even the idea of one 



THE RISE OF NATIONS 163 

church was later cast aside, as some nations definitely 
rejected the supremacy of the pope. All this made 
for more variety and many separate countries. At 
the same time, it led to terrible wars among nations, 
such as the Hundred Years' War between England 
and France ending in 1453, and the Thirty Years' 
War — a general European conflict that closed in 1648. 

The Rise and Growth of France 

The Prankish Kingdom. France was the first of 
the nations to appear. It derived its name from a band 
of Frankish warriors who broke through the northern 
border of the Roman province of Gaul about the middle 
of the third century. Long afterward there arose 
among them a leader called Clovis, who began, in 
486, the conquest of Gaul. At his death some twenty- 
five years later, the work had been finished ; nearly all 
the territory now embraced in modern France had been 
subdued and united under his sword. In the mean- 
time he had been converted to Christianity (see above, 
p. 126), so that France was among the first Christian 
kingdoms of the world. For nearly two hundred years 
the descendants of Clovis reigned in France. Then the 
family grew weak and indolent and was thrust aside 
by one more powerful. 

The Carolingians. The new family, known as Caro- 
lingians, had been growing in wealth and power for 
a long time ; it counted among its members warriors 
of skill and bravery. Each of the new line of kings 



164 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



was approved by the pope and thus had religious sanc- 
tion for his authority. Those who had once reigned 
by virtue of the sword now ruled ^' by the grace of 
God." 

The most famous of the line was Charlemagne, or 
Charles the Great, who reigned from 768 to 814. He 




Syracuse 

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The Empire of Charlemagne 

extended his realm to include large portions of Germany 
and Italy as well as France. He was a fierce warrior 
when fighting his neighbors ; at the same time he was 
a friend to peace within his own dominions. He 
founded schools, aided in the conversion of the heathen 
to the east of his realm, built magnificent palaces. 



THE RISE OF NATIONS 



i6S 




i66 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

and took pride in erecting beautiful churches. He 
was so deeply interested in learning that he tried to 
teach himself how to write after he became a man ; 
he kept tablets under his pillow so that he could practice 
whenever he had a little time to spare. Unhappily 
he began too late in life and could not master the art. 
The monks at his court, however, who could write, have 
left exciting stories of his valor and his deeds. 

The Holy Roman Empire. In the year 800 a wonder- 
ful thing happened in the life of Charlemagne. He 
was then on a visit to Rome, and on Christmas Day 
attended services at the great church of St. Peter's. 
While Charlemagne was kneeling before the altar, the 
pope, Leo HI, placed a crown upon his head and hailed 
him as *' Emperor of the Romans." By this act the 
king of the Franks was declared to be the successor 
of the great Roman emperors. In the streets of the 
Eternal City, where once the masses had cheered the 
victorious Caesar, the populace now did homage to a 
new master, who bore the grand old title of " Augustus." 

In this way there was established what was known as 
the Holy Roman Empire, w^hich was to last until 1806. 
It had a stormy life. Since it was the pope who first 
placed the crown on Charlemagne's head, later popes 
claimed the right to decide who should wear it. Charle- 
magne's empire broke up a few years after his death, 
but the struggle among princes to secure the imperial 
crown went on for nearly a thousand years. There 
were also endless disputes between popes and emperors 



THE RISE OF NATIONS 



167 



over, the question as to whether the religious or the 
imperial power was supreme. 

France under the Capetians. Charles the Great's 
family could not keep order in France, so that task 
passed to other hands. This time it was undertaken 
by Hugh Capet, a masterful baron who, from his seat 




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France in the Fifteenth Century 

at Paris, began to conquer dukes and counts all about 
him. Under the Capetian family France was again 
united. Branches of the family ruled in France, except 
for a short time, until the nineteenth century. 

The French barons strove with might and main to 
keep their independence ; but year by year, with 



1 68 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 




THE RISE OF NATIONS 169 

occasional setbacks, the power of the king increased. 
At length Louis XIV (1643-1715) could boast that he 
alone possessed all powers of government. Sons of 
barons who had once threatened kings with the sword 
were now glad to hold a napkin for a king as he sat at 
dinner. From time to time the French kings called 
parliaments composed of the clergy, the nobility, and 
the commoners. In 1614 even that restraint on the 
king was set aside. The king was absolute master, 
but the union of France was secured. 

The Rise of Spain 

Goths and Arabs in Spain. Even its fortunate 
position below the Pyrenees Mountains did not save 
the Spanish peninsula from the ravages of the barba- 
rian invasions. In 418 a German tribe of West Goths 
burst into Spain and established a kingdom there. 
For nearly three hundred years, the West Goths 
held their own against all enemies. Then in 711 
they were utterly defeated by a great army of Arabs, 
or Moors, from Africa. The Aloors were the followers 
of a zealous religious leader, A/[ohammed (died 632 a.d.). 
They were bent on conquering all Christendom. 

For seven hundred years the Moors maintained 
themselves in Spain. They built beautiful palaces and 
mosques, many of which still lend a peculiar charm to 
Spanish architecture. They brought with them the 
learning of the East. Above all they prized the study 
of natural science. 



170 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 




The Formation of Modern Spain. The presence 
of the Mohammedans in Spain was a source of distress 
to the kings of France. Charlemagne set about the 
task of winning the country back to Christianity. 
By heroic efforts he was able to wrest a part of the 

land from the 
Moors and gain a 
foothold beyond 
the Pyrenees. 

Thereafter a 
few Christian 
princes in Spain, 
who survived the 
Moorish conquest, 
were able to throw 
off Moorish rule. 
So independent 
kingdoms ap- 
peared here and 
there in the north. 
Among these early 
kingdoms were 
Castile, Leon, 
Aragon, and Na- 
varre. 

Finally these 
Christian realms were united under Ferdinand of 
Aragon and Isabella of Castile, who were married 
in 1469. By this time all of Spain had been re- 







(£) Keystone View Co., Inc. 

Court of the Lions, Alhambra (Spain) 



THE RISE OF NATIONS 171 

covered from the Moors, except the kingdom of 
Granada In the far south. In 1492, the year that 
Columbus sailed on his fateful voyage, the Moors were 
driven from their last foothold in Spain. All Spain 
came under the rule of Ferdinand and Isabella. To the 
west, however, the little kingdom of Portugal was able to 
keep its independence for a long time. Spain, united 
and peaceful at home, soon launched upon a new career. 
It led in exploring and conquering the New World. 

The Making of the English Nation 

The Coming of the Anglo-Saxons. When the bar- 
barians were at the gates of Rome in 410, messengers 
were sent post haste to recall the Roman army from the 
distant province of Britain. That far country, which 
Caesar had visited and his successors had conquered, 
was now to fall a victim to other foes. 

The newcomers were Jutes, Angles, and Saxons — 
Germanic warriors, who came from their homes in 
and near what is now the Danish peninsula. " Foes 
they are, fierce beyond other foes, and cunning as they 
are fierce," wrote a Roman poet ; '' the sea is their 
school, war and storm their friend ; they are sea wolves 
that live on the pillage of the world." Angles and 
Saxons were, in 449 a.d., invited by the Britons to 
aid them against the still more savage Picts and Scots 
that came down from the north. 

Before many years had passed, the English, as we 
may now call the various tribesmen, turned against 



172 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

their allies. They began the conquest of Britain for 
themselves. For a century or more the terrible contest 
went on. Wealthy Romans fled with their gold and 
silver or buried the treasure in the earth. One after 
another, the old Roman towns fell into the hands 
of the invaders. Christian churches were not spared 
the torch. Even the priests were slain at the altars. 
By the year 557, all southern and eastern Britain 
was subdued by the English, who had come in many 
bands under as many different war lords. 

Early English Unity. Yet the island was not to find 
peace. The conquerors turned against one another. 
For two and a half centuries English chieftains waged 
a deadly contest among themselves for supremacy. 
At length, in 828, one of them, Egbert of Wessex, 
brought all the English under his banner. In the 
meantime. Christian missionaries had been active and 
had converted the English to their faith. Churches 
and monasteries had risen all over the land, and 
monks were busy with their quills writing down laws 
and chronicles. 

Alfred the Great and the Danish Conquest. Unity 
had hardly been won before a fresh danger appeared. 
Bands of fierce warriors from Scandinavia, the Danes, 
swept down upon the English coasts in frightful array, 
burning and plundering. In a bitter struggle with 
them, Alfred, a grandson of King Egbert, was to win 
the love of his people and the title of " the Great." 
Coming to the throne in 871, he found his whole realm 



THE RISE OF NATIONS 



173 



Firth of Forth 



NORTH 
SEA 



in peril. By the most heroic efforts he saved a large 
part of it from the conquerors ; but all the northeastern 
part of England was wrested from him. 

In the realm that remained Alfred ruled with wisdom 
and justice. He 
won for himself a 
place in history as 
one of the noblest 
English sover- 
eigns. He was a 
brave warrior and 
knew how to lead 
an army in self-de- 
fense. He was a 
wise lawgiver. He 
compiled the laws 
of England, tak- 
ing, as he said, 
''those which 
seemed rightest to 
me." He was 
deeply interested 
in education. He 
had a school at his 
court, and wished that every freeborn boy should 
" abide at his book until he can well understand Eng- 
lish writing." Alfred was also a generous friend of the 
Church. 

He loved the English tongue and himself translated 




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Egbert's Kingdom 



174 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

into It many works written in the Latin language. 
Not content with making mere translations, Alfred 
added many passages of his own. He wrote down 
his ideas of wise and just government and made clear 
his hatred for the cruelty and tyranny of Roman 
emperors. Day and night, one of his friends said, 
Alfred labored to correct injustice done to his subjects, 
" for in that whole kingdom the poor had no helpers, 
or few, save the king himself." At his death, in 901, 
Alfred had made the beginnings of English literature 
and had set an example of a king who wished to be 
" a father to his people.'' 

The Norman Conquest of England. About a hun- 
dred years after Alfred's death, all England was 
conquered by Danish warriors. One of their leaders, 
however. King Canute, tried to rule as well as 
Alfred had done. After he had made certain of his 
grip upon England, he paid a visit to Rome. There 
he vowed, he says, '' to rule justly and piously my 
realm and subjects." After his death, wars filled the 
land again ; and, in 1066, another invader appeared 
in the Channel. 

This new soldier of fortune was William, the Duke of 
Normandy, from northern France. He was the de- 
scendant of a piratic Norse chieftain who had raided 
the coasts of France and then settled down there as a 
vassal of the French king. William himself was a born 
fighter of great strength and dreadful cruelty. '' So stark 
and fierce was he," wrote a chronicler of his time, " that 



THE RISE OF NATIONS 



175 



none dared to resist his will." None was strong enough 
to bend his bow or wield his heavy battle-ax. 

As he looked about for more land and booty, William 
had fixed upon England. At the battle of Hastings, 
in 1066, he de- 
feated and killed 
the English king, 
Harold, and seized 
his realm. After a 
little while he ex- 
tended his stern 
rule to the borders 
of Wales and Scot- 
land. He divided 
the land among his 
warriors, who be- 
came the landlords 
of England. But he 
was careful to keep 
allthenobleswellin 
hand, so that none 
could set himself 
up as king or defy 
the royal power. 




England Under William the Conqueror 



Under the Norman kings, England became a united 
and powerful country. The king kept order in the 
land ; peasants and merchants could live and work in 
peace. An old monkish chronicler, writing of the deeds 
of William the Conqueror, said : " Among the good 



176 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



things, is not to be forgotten the good peace that he 
made in his land ; so that a man who had any trust 
in himself might go over his realm with his bosom full 
of gold, unharmed. No man durst slay another, no 

matter how great 
might be the 
wrong done to 
him. . . . The 
king was very 
harsh and took 
from his subjects 
many a mark of 
gold and many a 
hundred pound of 
silver, all the which 
he took, by right 
and unright." 
Though the king 
was harsh, the land 
had peace. From 
the Norman con- 
quest to the pres- 
ent day, England 
has remained 
united. There were a few civil wars, but the land was 
not continually torn and ravaged by warring feudal 
princes. This good fortune was due in the beginning 
to the strong kings who kept the feudal lords from 
fighting one another. 




From an old print 

King John Signing Magna Carta 



THE RISE OF NATIONS 1 77 

King John and Magna Carta. Though the Norman 
kings and their successors were powerful in England, 
they were not allowed to rule just as they pleased. 
When King John undertook to tax, punish, imprison, 
and in other ways oppress his people, the barons and 
the high authorities in the Church united against him. 
They met at Runnymede in June, 121 5, and forced 
the king to promise to abide by certain rules. 

These rules were written down in a Great Charter 
{Magna Carta) which is prized by the English-speaking 
people to-day along with such documents as the Dec- 
laration of Independence. By the charter, certain dues 
which the feudal lords had to pay the king were fixed 
at definite sums. The rights of the clergy, including 
their property, were protected. The citizens of all 
cities were to enjoy their ancient customs and priv- 
ileges undisturbed. No freeman was to be tried and 
imprisoned by the king in an arbitrary manner. Justice 
was not to be sold or delayed by the king's officers. 
Only those who knew the law of England and meant 
to observe it were to be appointed royal sheriffs and 
judges. Certain taxes — though by no means all 
taxes — were to be levied only with the consent of the 
landlords who had to pay them. 

In time a wonderful fiction grew up about the Great 
Charter. It was believed that Magna Carta guaranteed 
trial by jury to all persons arrested for crimes. It 
was also believed that, according to the Charter, no 
taxes could be laid without the consent of the people. 



178 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

In after years, when any one did not like the king's 
deeds, he said that such ways were forbidden by the 
Great Charter. The fact is that the people often thus 
read into the Latin words of the Charter a meaning 
that was not really there. It cannot be said with truth 
that the mass of the English people, who were serfs, 
were meant to derive any special benefit from it. 
Still, the Great Charter is a justly famous landmark 
in English history. It did declare that the king could 
not do as he pleased in all matters. It also declared 
that in some cases he could not act without the consent 
of at least a few Englishmen. 

The Rise of the English Parliament. The son and 
the grandson of King John adopted a custom that also 
had a strong influence on all the later history of England 
and America. Since they were in dire straits for 
money, they called on certain of their subjects to help 
them get it. They asked the bishops, archbishops, 
and all the barons of high rank to meet them in person. 
They also invited each town and county to send repre- 
sentatives to the meeting. These representatives were 
chosen by the well-to-do men of the towns and the land- 
lords of the counties who had money to give the king. 

In time, such meetings between the king and certain 
of his subjects became a regular custom. So arose 
the English form of government. The lords and the 
higher clergy sat together during these sessions and 
were known as the House of Lords. The representa- 
tives of the towns and counties sat together and were 



THE RISE OF NATIONS 179 

known as the House of Commons. The two houses 
together were called Parliament. The term itself comes 
from a French word meaning " to speak." Parliament 
spoke to the king about taxes and such matters. 

In the beginning, the chief business of Parliamejit 
was to settle upon taxes for the king's treasury. It was 
not long, however, before Parliament in return for the 
taxes that were paid began to petition the king for 
changes in the laws that had been made by him. If 
the king approved a petition, it was accepted as a law of 
the land. Thus Parliament began to make laws itself. 

Gradually the rule was fixed that, save on rare occa- 
sions, the king was to make no law and lay no tax 
without the consent of Parliament. After a while 
Parliament ceased even to petition the king for new 
laws. It drew up its own law in the form of a bill. 
If the king approved the bill, it became a law. If 
the king said, in Latin, Veto, " I forbid," then it did 
not become a law. Although the king kept this right 
of veto for many centuries, still he generally consulted 
Parliament, which represented the taxpayers, when he 
wanted new laws. Such was the origin of representa- 
tive government. Though other countries, as well as 
England, had this plan of government in the middle 
ages, it was brought to American soil directly from Eng- 
land by the first colonists (First Book, p. 55). It is 
our plan of government to-day. 

The Growth of the National English Literature. 
The uniting of English territory meant the uniting of 



i8o OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

English minds — the forming of a national mind, so 
to speak. This was, like everything else, a slow pro- 
cess. The efforts of Alfred the Great to create a 
national English literature had been almost forgotten 
in the turmoil that followed his death. 

The Norman conqueror, William, brought with him 
an army of priests to whom English was a foreign 
tongue. He himself and his barons spoke the French 
of Normandy ; so that language was the language of 
the royal castle and the law courts. Judges rendered 
their decisions in French. Children had to learn it 
in the schools. For royal decrees and legal documents, 
like Magna Carta, Latin was generally used. Even 
the accounts of merchants and stewards on the great 
estates were usually kept in Latin. When William 
compiled a record of the lands and property of Eng- 
land for taxation, known as the Domesday Book, 
everything was put down in Latin. Only for a few 
chronicles and stray writings was the English tongue 
used. 

Nevertheless the conquerors could not force their 
language on the masses. In field and w^orkshop, Eng- 
lish was in daily use. Even the descendants of Nor- 
man barons had to learn English in order to deal 
with their subjects. By 1362, the use of French had 
become uncommon. In that year the order went 
forth that English should be used in the courts of 
law. In a few more 3^ears, it took the place of French 
in the schools and the acts of Parliament were written 



THE RISE OF NATIONS i8l 

In it. At length, sermons were preached in EngHsh. 
All that was then needed to make the humble language 
of the people a national language was its use in great 
poems and books. In time, these also appeared. 

Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales. First among the 
masters of English literature was Geoffrey Chaucer, 
the son of a London wine merchant, born about 1340. 
Unlike most learned men of that time, he was not a 
priest. He was, for a short period, a soldier ; then 
minister of the king on missions to various Italian 
cities ; and finally he was a member of Parliament and 
a government officer. 

His greatest work, Canterbury Tales, begun about 
1384, is justly famous even to this day. It is a vivid 
picture of English life in that age. It purports to be 
a collection of stories told by some pilgrims stopping 
at an inn on their way to the shrine of a saint at Canter- 
bury. For the clergy as a class, a monk, a friar, a 
poor parson, and a " sweet prioress " speak ; a lawyer, 
a doctor, and a clerk spin their yarns ; a good wife 
from Bath, a merchant, a tailor, a plowman, a weaver, 
a miller, and other artisans add their tales to the 
common store. The language of the poem is English. 
Though many of the words are strange to us and the 
spelling seems queer, we can read it to-day with a 
Httle help from a dictionary of old English, High 
school students usually read passages from it. 

Here we have for the first time a great English poem 
which deals not with heroes or saints and martyrs, 



1 82 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

but with the people of everyday life. The scholar 
who loved his Latin book could laugh over it, and so 
could the humblest person who could read English. 
In a little more than fifty years after Chaucer's death 
in 1400, the printing press was to spread copies of 
his stories broadcast over his native land. 

William Caxton and the Printing Press. It was in 
1476 that the first printing press was set up in London. 
It was brought into England by William Caxton, who 
had spent many years as a merchant in Bruges and 
had there learned the art of printing. At first Caxton, 
besides printing for his customers, translated many 
books from French and Latin. He brought, them out 
in the English form, employing as far as possible 
" the common terms that be daily used." School- 
boys could then get, for a few pence, copies of many of 
Cicero's writings in English as well as in Latin. 

But Caxton was more than a translator. He wanted 
to help perfect the English language and to give to 
readers the best writings in that tongue. In fact, 
he printed all the English poetry that was thought 
worthy in his day. Naturally, he brought out a fine 
edition of the Canterbury Tales. " That worshipful 
man, Geoffrey Chaucer," he said, '' ought to be eter- 
nally remembered." In due time, books in English 
crowded aside those of Latin authors and French 
romancers. An English national literature was created. 
This English literary inheritance has had a powerful 
influence upon our own country. 



THE RISE OF NATIONS 183 

Questions and Exercises 

I. I. What does modern civilization owe to the kings of me- 
dieval Europe? 2. On p. 162 several bonds uniting people 
into, nations are named : a common language, a common litera- 
ture, a common system of education, a common system of laws, 
a uniform monetary system, a common religion, a strong central 
government, and means of carrying on commerce among all parts 
of a country. Which of these have been most important in 
making the United States a nation? 3. Some of these things 
tend to-day to unite the peoples of Europe ; and yet Europe is 
made up of many nations. What would probably have to take 
place before all of Europe could be united in the sense in which 
our people are united ? 

II. I. Why is the name of Clovis remembered? 2. How 
long after the fall of Rome did Charlemagne die? 3. What 
is meant by the Holy Roman Empire ? In what ways did it differ 
from the ancient Roman empire ? 4. In what important ways 
did the early history of Spain differ from the early history of 
France? 5. Find out something about the religion of Moham- 
med and his followers. How does it differ from Christianity ? 
What city in Europe now follows the religion of Mohammed ? 

III. I. Why are the English people sometimes called the 
Anglo-Saxons ? Find on the map the regions from which the 
different peoples came that successively conquered England. 
2. As England was invaded from the east and south, the original 
inhabitants were pushed to the west and north ; find on a map 
the regions in which they might have found refuge from the in- 
vaders. Perhaps you can think of some reasons that will explain 
why the people of Wales and Ireland and of the north of Scot- 
land are even to-day in many ways different from the people of 
England. 3. Why has the year 1066 somewhat the same im- 
portance in English history that the year 1776 has in American 
history ? 4. For three centuries after 1066 the French Ian- 



1 84 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

guage was the official language of the English government; how 
would you explain this ? 5. What classes were chiefly bene- 
fited by the Magna Carta? 6. How did the term "parlia- 
ment" originate? In what ways did the English Parliament 
in its early days differ from our Congress ? Why was develop- 
ment of the power of Parliament to control taxes so important ? 
7. What is meant by "representative government"? In what 
respect is it true that the development of representative govern- 
ment in England is a part of American history ? 8. In what 
ways did Chaucer and Caxton help to unify the English peo- 
ple and thus to make the English nation ? 

Geographical Studies 

I. For the Holy Roman Empire (p. 166), see map on p. 277. 
Compare its extent with the extent of the ancient Roman empire 
(p. 53) and with the extent of modern France (map facing p. 436). 
2. What modern countries are included in the territory covered 
by the empire of Charlemagne (map, p. 164) ? 3. What terri- 
tory belonged to France in the fifteenth century that now belongs 
to her neighbors ? Answer this question by comparing the map on 
p. 167 with the map facing p. 436. 4. Explain, by reference to 
the text, why the map of England on p. 175 is simpler than that 
on p. 173. 5. Make a list of the names of places in this chapter. 
Try to locate each name on one of the maps in this chapter. 
Which places cannot thus be located ? Why ? 

Suggestions for Reading 

Best, S. M. — Merry England; Macmillan. 

Dale, Lucy — Landmarks of British History, i-viii ; Longmans. 
Macgregor, Mary — The Story of France, i-xiv ; Stokes. 
Marshall, H. E. — A History of France, i-xxiv ; Hodder and 

Stoughton. 
Morris, Charles — Historical Tales' — English; Lippincott. 



THE RISE OF NATIONS 185 

QuENNELL, M. AND C. H. B. — A History of Everyday Things in 

England^ Parts I and II ; B. T. Batsford, London. 
Tappan, Eva A4. — England's Story, i-v ; Houghton Mifflin. 

Hero Stories of France, i-xiii ; Houghton Mifflin. 

Heroes of the Middle Ages, xix-xxii ; Harrap. 
Warren — Stories from English History, i-v, viii-xiv ; Heath. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE GROWTH OF WORLD COMMERCE AND 
EXPLORATION 

After securing their unity, the new nations, Spain, 
France, and England, were ready for the next historic 
task — the great work of exploring, conquering, and 
settling a New World. North and South America 
were soon to be discovered, in a search for a water 
route to India and China. In time commerce and 
industry were to overshadow, in importance, agriculture 
— the mainstay of the people in the middle ages. 
Business men and industrial workers were to rival in 
numbers landlords, clergy, and peasants. Industrial 
and trading cities were to spring up all over western 
Europe. 

In short, with the unity of the three nations, Europe 
was going over into a new epoch — out of the middle 
ages into modern times. The history of Europe was 
now to pass beyond Europe itself to the uttermost 
parts of the earth, where new nations were to be founded 
and trade carried on. The governments of Spain, 
France, and England, especially, were to grant money 
to explorers, charter companies, and build fleets of 
ships. They were to engage in three hundred years 

1 86 



COMMERCE AND EXPLORATION 



187 



of warfare for the possession of trade and lands beyond 
the seas. 

The Growth of Trade from Early Times 



Commerce in Ancient Times 

ever, did not burst upon man- 
kind all at once. It was like 
the flowering of a slowly grow- 
ing plant. Commerce among 
nations began in the distant 
past. All the great countries 
of antiquity had their ships, 
their warehouses, and their 
merchants. The people of 
Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, 
Greece, Rome, Carthage, and 
other ancient states, each in 
turn, built up trade in the 
Mediterranean basin. 

East and West, adven- 
turous merchants and sailors 
looked for new markets and 
new supplies. King Solomon's 
men brought gold, silver, ivory, 
and peacocks all the way from 
India to Palestine. Alexander 
the Great, looking for more 
worlds to conquer, led his 
army to the very borders of 



This new age, how- 




MetropolUan Museum 

Antique Silk from the Far 
East 



1 88 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

India. Though an early death cut short his plans, 
Greek merchants opened up a rich traffic in Indian 
goods. Herodotus, the Greek historian, said that 
India was the wealthiest and most populous country 
on earth. Even more distant China was known to 
the ancients, by the name of Seres. It was often 
mentioned in the legends of the Persians. Among the 
records of China is an account of a Chinese prince who, 
in the year 985 b.c, made a journey into the remote 
lands of the West and brought back with him skilled 
workmen and many curiosities. 

The Romans made much of their trade with the Far 
East. A Roman writer of the first century after Christ 
complained that Arabia, India, and China drained 
Rome of millions of dollars of gold annually to pay 
for silks and other luxuries. In the later days, when 
the Roman empire stretched from Britain to Arabia, 
the trade was immense. In the markets of the city 
of Rome could be seen tin, lead, and hides from Britain 
and iron from Gaul, as well as silks, spices, and precious 
stones from India and the distant East. We are told 
that one Roman merchant carried on the same voyage 
from Egypt to Rome a great obelisk, 200 sailors, 1200 
passengers, 400,000 Roman bushels of wheat, and a 
cargo of linen, glass, paper, and pepper. In the cities 
of the Roman empire, there were to be found huge 
warehouses of the merchants who made princely for- 
tunes from trade. 

Commerce in the Middle Ages. As the Roman 



COMMERCE AND EXPLORATION 



189 




190 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

empire fell to pieces, its vast trade decayed. Ware- 
houses closed their doors. The families of rich mer- 
chants became poor. The silks, spices, and precious 
jewels of the East were seen no more in the market 
places. The huge and bare stone castles of feudal 
lords took the place of luxurious Roman villas. Each 
locality came to depend upon itself for practically all 
the necessities of life and most of the few luxuries 
that were enjoyed. The. merchants who ventured 
abroad were likely to be set upon by thieves and robbed 
of their goods. 

Still, in the worst of times, trade did not vanish 
altogether. Though the wide-reaching Roman roads 
were no longer kept in repair, they offered ways for 
the adventurous trader to journey from land to land. 
Even the most fortunate community could not supply 
all its wants. Iron and salt, at least, usually had to 
be brought from some place more or less distant. 
Some lands were better for grain, and others for cattle 
and swine. So it came about that even in the midst 
of the decline of old Rome a little traffic was kept going. 

In the course of time, new market towns arose. 
Some of the old Roman cities, too, after a period of 
idleness showed signs of life again, or new towns 
were built upon the ruins of the old. The monasteries 
inhabited by Christian monks, which dotted every 
country, became centers to which men journeyed from 
far and wide. In them the wayfaring merchant could 
always find a place to sleep and something to eat. 



COMMERCE AND EXPLORATION 



191 



At certain favorable points, annual fairs were held, 
at which local goods were traded for iron, salt, and other 
merchandise. At other favorable points, market towns 
sprang up, often under royal protection. In the days 
of Alfred the Great, English merchants journeyed often 
to the continent to trade at the French fairs, even as 
far away as Marseilles. 




FTom an old print 



Church of the Holy Sepulchre 



The Crusades and Commerce. By a strange stroke of 
fortune, the trade of Europe was increased by the rise 
of the Mohammedans (p. 169), who threatened to 
overwhelm Christendom. All the eastern and south- 
ern shores of the Mediterranean, including Palestine 
with the tomb of the Savior, fell into their hands. 



192 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

To rescue the Holy Land from the Mohammedans, 
the Europeans of all nations began, in 1096, a series 
of wars known as the Crusades. These lasted for more 
than two hundred years. Kings, princes, knights, 
common soldiers, monks, peasants, artisans, and even 
little children flocked to the armies that made the 
perilous journeys to the distant Palestine. In these 
crusades, thousands of people perished by the wayside 
or on the battlefield. Other thousands lived to make 
their way home, bearing stirring tales of their adventures 
and of the countries through which they had passed. 

The tomb of the Savior was not permanently won 
for Christendom by the crusaders. As often happens, 
the results were very different from what had been 
expected. Instead of hating the Mohammedans and 
all their ideas, the crusaders were deeply affected by 
their way of living. Men from England, France, 
Germany, and Spain acquired new wants and tastes 
as they beheld the luxuries of the East. They were 
no longer content with the rough life they had led. 
Henceforth they must have spices, silks, tapestries, 
rugs, gold and silver ornaments, and precious stones 
from the East. Their neighbors caught the spirit as 
they heard wondrous stories of far countries, rich in 
luxuries. 

Moreover, enterprising persons from western Europe 
had seen the splendor of Constantinople, where the 
remnants of Rome's former glory were to be found. 
Adventurers then learned how to traffic with the 



COMMERCE AND EXPLORATION 



193 



merchants of the 
East and heard 
from them many 
tales of India and 
China. Especially 
did the Italians 
profit from the 
crusades. The mer- 
chants of Genoa 
and Venice heaped 
up great fortunes 
by selling supplies 
to the crusading 
armies. In the 
train of the vic- 
tors, they founded 
colonies and trad- 
ing centers on 
the eastern shores of the Mediterranean 




From an old print 

Saladin, a Mohammedan Warrior 



European Attention Fixed upon the East 

The Steady Growth of Oriental Trade. For more 
than two hundred years after the seventh and last 
great crusade, in 1272, trade in eastern wares steadily 
grew in volume. During this period, the Italians 
abandoned the long overland route to England through 
France and adopted the plan of sending their 
goods by ships through the Strait of Gibraltar. The 
great mercantile houses of Genoa, Florence, and Venice 



194 C)UR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

had their branches in The Netherlands and England. 
They bought lead, tin, wool, and alum from the English 
and gave in exchange wines, tea, silks, spices, perfumes, 
porcelains, precious stones, tapestries, and rugs. In 
vain did English moralists lament that their country- 
men were trading useful things like tin and wool for 
spices, sweet wines, and other trifles '' which fatally 
blur our eyes." Englishmen learned to like luxuries 
so much that preaching against " fancy goods " could 
not stop their sale. 

The Italians made great profits from this trade. 
They founded banks and lent money to kings engaged 
in wars. French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and 
English merchants looked with envy upon the gains 
of their Italian rivals and longed to get into '^ the golden 
East " themselves. Indeed, later in the fifteenth cen- 
tury English merchants began business for themselves 
in the eastern Mediterranean. By that time all 
western Europe was deeply stirred over Oriental and 
Indian trade. 

The Old Trade Routes. The goods which were 
enriching the Italians and delighting the purchasers 
in western Europe came to the West by many routes, 
all of which led through the Mediterranean. One or 
more overland lines extended all the way from Peking, 
China, to the Black Sea and Constantinople. Another 
line stretched from India through the Persian Gulf and 
the city of Bagdad to Constantinople. Still other routes 
ran through the Red Sea to ports on the Mediterranean. 



COMMERCE AND EXPLORATION 



195 




196 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

The overland journeys were made by long trains 
of camels heavily laden with boxes and bales of mer- 
chandise. These trips were, at best, perilous and 
expensive. Goods from India had to be packed and 
unpacked many times. For example, they were 
carried overland to the ports on the west coast of India ; 
there they were placed on board ship and carried to 
the headwaters of the Persian Gulf ; at that point 
they were put on camels and taken overland to the 
shores of the Black Sea ; thence they went by boat 
to the Constantinople market. At Constantinople 
the goods passed into the hands of Italian traders 
who shipped them, perhaps, to Venice. Venetian 
merchants then carried them to Marseilles and over- 
land through France to the English Channel, thence 
by boat to London, and from London often to a final 
destination in some inland town. 

The cost of freight for such a journe}^ was necessarily 
heavy, and each merchant through whose hands the 
goods passed took his toll of profits. A pound of 
cinnamon often sold in an English or German market 
for twenty-five times its original cost in India. The 
losses, too, were great. The land was infested by 
robbers and the sea by pirates. Wars were constantly 
being waged between the Italians and the Turks. 
When the latter, in 1453, captured Constantinople, 
the greatest trading center of the Near East passed 
out of the hands of Christians and into the control of 
the hated '' infidels." Long before that event, how- 



COMMERCE AND EXPLORATION 197 

ever, the Italians had begun a search for a water route 
around Africa. 

The Travelers to the East. Western people were 
not content merely to receive goods from the East. 
Naturally, they became curious, about the countries 
from which silks and spices came. They wanted to 
know more about the fabled lands and to see them 
with their own eyes. Christian missionaries, daunted 
by no perils, went to convert the heathen. A writer 
of the third century, telling of successful missions, 
declared : " We can count up in our reckoning things 
achieved in India, among the Chinese, Persians, and 
Medes." In 1245 a missionary was sent by the pope 
far beyond the Black Sea into " the land of the Great 
Khan." On his return this man wrote a lively account 
of his visit. He praised highly the people of Cathay, 
as he named the land of the Chinese ; he vowed that 
their country was '' very rich in grain, wine, gold, 
silver, silk, and everything which tends to the support 
of mankind." Ten years later another missionary, 
sent by the king of France, came back and told aston- 
ishing tales of '' little fellows " with " very narrow 
eyes," some of whom lived in a town that had 
'* silver walls and gold battlements." 

A few more years passed and two famous Venetian 
merchants, the Polo brothers, went overland to China 
and visited the emperor of the Mongols at Peking. 
On a later visit, they took with them young Marco 
Polo, who stayed many years in China. Marco jour- 



198 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

neyed from city to city and learned about the trade 
and habits of the Chinese. 

When he returned to Venice in 1295 bringing dia- 
monds, rubies, and sapphires, he stirred the whole 
city by his stories. He boasted to his friends of his 
exploits ; these were set down in a book, which de- 
scribed at great length the land he had visited. He 
told of the Chinese emperor's splendid palace with 
its walls of burnished gold and silver, its jeweled panels, 
and its gorgeous tapestries. He told of his visit to the 
royal court where, he said, princes wore robes of silk 
and beaten gold and girdles set with precious stones. 
Never had such a tale appeared, except in fairy stories. 
Polo's book was in great demand. It aroused the 
interest of all who read it — kings and princes, as well 
as merchants and sailors. 

The Spread of Knowledge about the East. After 
the Polos' day, many new books were written about 
Asia. In 1307, a monk from Armenia, who lived in 
France, wrote a geography of Asia with valuable his- 
torical notes.. An Italian commercial agent, Pego- 
lotti, published a handbook and guide for merchants 
doing business with the Far East. He explained how 
goods were packed, money exchanged, and tariffs 
paid. He carefully described the trade routes and 
gave good advice about traveling in safety and comfort. 
This book shows clearly that the road to Cathay was 
often traveled and that a vast amount of goods was 
handled by the merchants. Among the things listed 



COMMERCE AND EXPLORATION 199 

by this writer were copper, pepper, cotton, madder, 
oil, flax, ermines, furs, pearls, almonds, sulphur, and 
nutmegs, cinnamon, and other spices. 

By 1350 there were probably merchants in every 
large town from London to Venice who could talk 
intelligently about the long routes to the East and 
about India and China. Monks in the monasteries, 
merchants in their shops, sailors and longshoremen at 
the docks, and many a scholar poring over his books 
by that time knew something about ''the fabled East." 

The Service of Science and Learning 

The Making of Geographies. While merchants 
and travelers were going to and from the East, bearing 
tales of endless wonder, geographers were busy too. 
They pieced together bits of information and began to 
draw maps of Asia. As the beginning for their work, 
they had the writings of the ancients. Greek scholars, 
long before the time of Christ, had taught that the 
world was round. Moreover, they had written many 
books about geography. Some fragments of Greek 
writings had been copied down by a famous geographer, 
Claudius Ptolemy, who lived in Egypt. In the second 
century after Christ, Ptolemy wrote a great deal about 
the lands and waters of the earth. 

Though Christian writers thought of the other 
world rather than of this, they did not by any means 
neglect geography. One of them, writing in the sixth 
century, seems to have been well acquainted with 



200 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

India and shows a knowledge of the ancient Greek 
writings. Another, in 1306, drew a map which showed 
Africa ending in a point. Still another, Fra Mauro, 
a lay brother in a Venetian monastery, made, about 
1459, his unique map of the world in which he used 
the knowledge gained by Marco Polo and other trav- 
elers. Mauro's map gave a very clear idea of the 
Mediterranean basin and western Europe. It also 
showed (i) Africa with the water route all around 
it, (2) the Indian Ocean, and (3) a rough outline of 
Asia with the Ganges River rudely drawn. With much 
truth, men mixed many errors and all kinds of absurd 
guesses ; but keen minds were slowly separating the 
truth from the rumors. 

Toscanelli. Perhaps the most famous of these 
early geographers was Toscanelli, an astronomer and 
librarian, who lived in Florence until his death in 1482. 
He early became interested in stories of travel, includ- 
ing those of Marco Polo. Through the busy years of 
a long life, he worked steadily at geography until his 
fame spread far and wide. Navigators went to talk 
with him and princes sought his advice. Toscanelli 
finally came to believe that the world was round and 
that India could be reached by sailing west. He wrote 
a letter and made a map giving his ideas. Though 
the map was lost, the letter was kept and from it we 
can see clearly what was in Toscanelli's mind. It 
is thought that Columbus had both the letter and the 
map when he sailed in 1492 ; but this is not known. 



COMMERCE AND EXPLORATION 



20I 



Knowledge of the Earth's Shape. Naturally, as 
men studied geography they came to think more and 
more about the shape of the earth. It was the common 
view that the earth was flat. It seemed flat, and nearly 




Perils of the Deep 



From an old print 



everybody took the appearance for the truth. Still 
there had been, from very early times, a few scholars 
who beHeved it to be round (p. 199). Aristotle, as early 
as the fourth century b.c, taught that the earth was a 
globe. Nearly four hundred years later, the geogra- 
pher Strabo said that this theory was sound ; so also 
did Roger Bacon, an English monk who lived in the 
thirteenth century. He even went so far as to say that 
India could be reached by sailing west from Spain. 



202 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

The Science of Navigation. While the map-makers 
were busy tracing the shape of continents, other men 
of science were finding ways of guiding ships over 
pathless oceans. Sometime in the thirteenth century 
there appeared among the sailors of Europe a tiny 
instrument that made it possible for them to tell di- 
rections even on the darkest night. This tiny thing, 
the compass, was invented by some unknown genius. 
The date of the invention is likewise unknown. In 
English books written about i i8o, we read of a '' needle 
on a pivot which revolves until the point is north." 
In a little while every ocean-going ship had its compass. 
As the years passed, other sailing instruments were 
made. The astrolabe was improved so that the sailor 
could find his distance from the equator by taking the 
height of the sun. When the time came for the voyages 
which revealed the New World, sea captains could hold 
their ships to a given course and keep a record of their 
sailing. 

Navigators, Explorers, and Conquerors 

The Navigators. As travelers and scholars gained 
knowledge, men of aflPairs applied it. Italian sailors 
took the lead. They chafed at the expense of trade 
by the overland routes and wondered about a water 
route around Africa. They had found it easy to sail 
out through the Strait of Gibraltar and far north to 
England. It occurred to them, naturally enough, that 
it would be equally easy to sail south around Africa. 




The Age of Discovery 
203 



204 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



As early as 1292 they tried it; but at length they 
gave it up as hopeless. 

The Italians, however, aroused the interest of the 
Portuguese. On their way to and from the ports of 
The Netherlands and England, Italian seamen often 
put in at Lisbon. Many a one stayed to make his 

home in Portugal. The 
Portuguese were likewise 
moved by the huge profits 

■t F'S^M which the Italians made on 

« # Oriental goods. They began 

' . f'^^ to think about a new route to 

Persia, India, and China. So 
it happened that Portuguese 
sailors became the pioneers 
in the work of exploring the 
high seas. 

The way for this great work 
was made easier by the labors 
of a son of the Portuguese 
king. Prince Henry, famous in 
history as ''the Navigator." 
Though brave in battle and skilled in military science, 
he turned from the arts of war to the arts of peace. 
He refused a high military command. He chose instead 
to live on the lonely cape of Sagres at the remotest point 
of Portugal looking out southwest to the sea. There 
he built a home and an observatory. There he brought 
together astronomers, geographers, and map-makers. 




From an old prtnt 



Queen Isabella, the Patroness 
OF Columbus 



COMMERCE AND EXPLORATION 205 

He sent expedition after expedition down the coast 
of Africa in search of the southern passage to the 
Indies. Out of his own purse he bought maps and 
books. He maintained a school in which seamen were 
trained to sail their ships according to the best plans 
that science could afford. 

Prince Henry's men discovered Madeira and the 
Azores. They rounded Cape Bajador, nearly a thou- 
sand miles to the south of Sagres on the African coast. 
They sighted the waters of the Senegal River flooding 
out to the sea. They swept away the myths about 
the dangers of long sea voyages. As a result Prince 
Henry, in putting aside military glory, found lasting 
fame as a helper of mankind. When he died, in 1460, 
he left behind a large band of skilled sailors who carried 
on the good work he had so nobly begun. 

The Great Explorers. The men who carried forward 
the work of Prince Henry the Navigator found a water 
route to India and discovered a new world {First Book, 
pp. 1-50). A Portuguese sailor, Bartholomew Diaz, 
in i486 rounded the point of Africa and gave it the 
name of the Cape of Good Hope, a sign that the victory 
over the seas was soon to be won. Six years later 
Columbus, bearing the flag of Spain, made the first 
of his four famous voyages that were to unfold a new 
continent to European eyes. A little later came the 
astounding news that Vasco da Gama had rounded the 
Cape of Good Hope, sailed straight to India, and re- 
turned home safely to Portugal (1497-99). 



206 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



About the same time, John and Sebastian Cabot, in 
the service of the EngHsh king, sailed to the coast of 

North America 
and gave to Eng- 
land a claim to its 
eastern shores. In 
1507 the new con- 
tinents were chris- 
tened America in 
honor of the ex- 
plorer, Amerigo 
Vespucci, who, it 
was claimed, made 
four voyages of 
discovery to the 
New World. 

In 1 5 19 Ma- 
gellan decided to 
outstrip his fellow 
explorers by sail- 
ing all the way 
around the world. 
He perished on 
the journey, but 
some of his sailors 
completed the historic voyage three years afterwards. 

A little more than ten years later, the king of France 
took a hand in the new enterprise. He sent out one 
of his bravest sailors, Cartier. This bold seaman ex- 




From an old ^rint 

Columbus on the Deck of His Ship 



COMMERCE AND EXPLORATION 



207 



plored the St. Lawrence River and laid claim to the 
St. Lawrence basin. 

Within fifty years of Columbus' first voyage, there 
was a lively trade between Europe and India. Hun- 
dreds of islands and two vast continents in the western 
hemisphere were rapidly being opened up. 







From an old prtnl 
Spanish Conquerors Destroying Mexican Idols 

The Spanish Conquerors. Leadership in exploring 
the mainland of North and South America was under- 
taken by warriors bearing the banner of Spain and by 
missionaries bearing the cross of Christ. One of the 
great Spanish warriors, Ferdinand Cortez, in 15 19 
discovered Mexico — a vast empire with fertile farms, 
prosperous cities, and great stores of gold and silver. 



208 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

In a short time he conquered Mexico, looted its treas- 
uries, and subjected it to Spanish rule. 

Another warrior, Pizarro, soon afterward heard of 
Peru, another rich country to the south. With a hand- 
ful of soldiers he overthrew the native king. In a short 
time, he raised the Spanish flag over the dazed and 
beaten natives, and carried off tons of precious metals. 

A third Spanish captain, De Soto, sought fame and 
wealth by making an expedition into Florida and the 
wilderness to the west. Instead of great cities, how- 
ever, he found a few native Indians living in wretched 
huts ; instead of fortune, he met his death on the 
banks of the Mississippi River. Other explorers, work- 
ing northward from Mexico, penetrated the territories 
now included in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, 
planting the Spanish flag in many a trading post and 
mission which they founded. 

Before the sixteenth century was half over, the 
Spanish king had a vast empire in the two Americas. 
Streams of gold and silver were pouring into his country. 
The sails of Spanish galleons were seen amid the curi- 
ous junks in Chinese harbors ; in the strange waters of 
Java, Sumatra, and India ; in the ports of West India 
and both Americas ; and bending before the storms 
of two capes. Good Hope and the Horn. 

Questions and Exercises 

L I. Why was a more extensive commerce possible In the 
days of the Roman empire than after the fall of the empire : 



COMMERCE AND EXPLORATION 209 

(Think of the ways in which a large number of small, independent- 
states would make the transportation of goods over long dis- 
tances a difficult undertaking.) 2. What effect, if any, did the 
supreme importance of religion during the middle ages have upon 
commerce ? (For example, would there be so great a demand 
for luxuries?) 3. The Romans built splendid roads throughout 
the empire ; how would these roads have been likely to fare when 
the empire was split up ? 4. How would the lack of a strong 
law enforced by a central government affect the safety of travel ? 
5. What were the " Crusades," and what was their most important 
influence on the life of Europe ? How long after the fall of Rome 
was the first crusade undertaken ? 

H. I. When trade between western Europe and the eastern 
countries had once been reopened, what decided advantage did 
the Italian cities have for controlling the trade ? -2. Trace 
on the map (p. 203) the routes by which goods from China and 
India were brought to Italy, Spain, France, and England. 
3. How did the capture of Constantinople by the Turks affect 
this trade ? In what other way have we found that this event 
influenced western Europe ? 

III. I. Why was it difficult for people living in the middle ages 
to think of the earth as a sphere ^ What reasons have you learned 
from your study of geography to justify your belief that the earth 
is round ? Which of these reasons may Aristotle have thought of 
as a basis for his belief that the earth was round ^ 2. Why was 
the compass so important an invention ? How had the Romans 
been able to manage their navigation of the Mediterranean Sea 
without such instruments ^ 3. What advantage did the astrolabe 
give to the navigator ? 

IV. I. The Italians found it possible to sail their ships through 
the Strait of Gibraltar and thence north to England. Why was 
the southern route around Africa so much more difficult ^ 
2. Why is Prince Henry the Navigator remembered as one of 
the great benefactors of mankind ^ What important events 



2IO OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

grew out of the work of Prince Henry? 3. Who finally dis- 
covered the "ocean route" from western Europe to India? 
4. In the attempts to discover this route, the Western world 
had been discovered. Which turned out in the end to be the 
more important event, and why ? Which was considered at the 
time the more important event, and why ? 

Geographical Studies 

I. Trace on the map on p. 203 as many as you can of the voy- 
ages described in this chapter; of the land journeys. 2. What 
line on that map separates the northern from the southern hem- 
isphere ? All the nations of any importance at the time of Co- 
lumbus lay entirely in the northern hemisphere. How, then, can 
you explain the fact that so many of the important voyages of 
discovery were partly or chiefly in the southern hemisphere ? 
3. Would Columbus have seen the value of the Suez Canal ? Of 
the Panama Canal ? Would Magellan ? 4. What continent did 
Magellan just miss discovering? 5. Marco Polo's trip to China 
was entirely overland. He started from Acre (Akka) in Asia 
Minor and traveled through Persia, over the Pamir Plateau, 
through what is now eastern Turkestan, and across the Desert 
of Gobi to Shangtu, in northern China. Trace this route on the 
map on p. 203. Compare this map with the map of Asia in your 
textbook in geography, and estimate the great distance that Polo 
traveled, and see why it took him four years to make the journey. 

Suggestions for Reading 

Blyth, Estelle — Jerusalem and the Crusades; Dodge. 

Gray, G. Z. — The Children's Crusades ; Houghton Mifflin. 

Hall — The Boy^s Book of Chivalry, xi— xv. 

O'Neill — The Story of the World, xxi, xxiv, xxx. 

Tappan — Heroes of the Middle Ages, xxvi-xxxvi. 

Van Loon — The Story of Mankind (School edition), xxxiv, xxxviii, xli. 

Warren — Stories from English History, vii. 



COMMERCE AND EXPLORATION 211 

Suggestions for Review of Chapters V-VIII 

1. If we think of the middle ages as beginning with the fall 
of Rome and ending about the time of the discovery of America, 
how many years did this period cover ? Compare this with the 
period covered by recorded history up to the fall of Rome ; with 
the period between the first Roman kings and the fall of Rome ; 
with the period between the discovery of America and the pres- 
ent time; with the period of our national history (from 1776 
to the present time). 

2. Make a list of ten events and topics occurring during the 
middle ages that you consider the most important; for example, 
the spread of Christianity, the rise of nations, the invention of 
printing, and the journey of Marco Polo. Arrange these in the 
order of their happening, and then try to rearrange them in the 
order of their importance, giving reasons for the importance as- 
signed to each. Keep this list, for you may change your mind 
on some points as you go on with your study of modern history. 

3. Let each pupil think of this question: Who are the prom- 
inent persons of medieval history that you would like best to 
know.? Then take a vote and have "reception committees" 
appointed to gather information about these persons and through 
this information bring the persons themselves to meet the class. 

History Stories, Myths, and Legends for 
Chapters V-VIII 

Baldwin, J. — Stories of Siegfried; Scribners. 

The Story of Roland; Scribners. 
Butler, Isabel — The Song of Roland; Houghton Mifflin. 
Church, A. J. — Stories of Charlemagne; Macmillan. 
Dasent, G. W. — Norse Fairy Tales; Lippincott. 
Button, Maude B. — Little Stories of England; American Book. 
Haaren, J. H., and Poland, A. B. — Famous Men of the Middle 
Ages ; American Book. 



212 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Lamprey, L. — In the Days of the Guild ; Stokes. 

Masters of the Guild; Stokes. 
Lanier, Sidney, (Editor) — The Boy^s Froissart; Scribners. 
Lanier, Sidney — The Boy's King Arthur ; Scribners. 
Pyle, Howard — Robin Hood; Button. 

Stein, Evaleen — Our Little Norman Cousin of Long Ago ; Page. 
Stephen, James — Irish Fairy Tales ; Macmillan. 
WiNSLow, C. V. — Our Little Carthaginian Cousin of Long Ago; 
Page. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 

While kings were building up their power in Europe 
and bold explorers were opening America for settle- 
ment, the old dispute between the pope and the monarch 
— Church and State — ^ broke out afresh. As you will 
remember, Christianity was at first the belief of small 
and persecuted groups of people. Three centuries 
later, it was made the official religion of the Roman 
empire. The pope at Rome became the head of the 
Church. After the downfall of the Roman empire, 
there appeared many kings in Western Christendom, 
who often quarreled with the pope, although they 
were loyal to the Catholic faith. For a time the 
quarrels ceased ; but in a little while after the year 
1500 they were renewed. Before this new dispute 
was ended, several nations had denied altogether the 
right of the pope to control in religious matters, and 
a number of new religious denominations had come 
into being. These sects were known as Protestants 
because they protested against the Catholic faith. 
The religious movement which filled the sixteenth 
century with turmoil was known as the Protestant 

Reformation. 

213 



214 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

For more than a century, Europe was torn by religious 
wars between Catholics and Protestants. There 
were civil wars and there were wars between nations. 
The contending factions burned or otherwise cruelly 
punished many of their opponents. Thousands of 
people were driven by this religious persecution to 
seek refuge in America. The masses everywhere were 
aroused by the disputes of kings and preachers as well 
as by the disputes of kings and the pope. They began 
to take a deep interest in matters of the mind and to 
read the Bible for themselves and hold their own opin- 
ions. Thus popular education on a wide scale was 
started in the age of the Reformation. The people at 
large had never read anything before. So we may 
truly say that the sixteenth century is among the most 
important periods in the long history of mankind. 

The Protestant Reformation in Germany 

Early Criticism of the Church. Although the Prot- 
estant revolt against the authority of the pope in 
the sixteenth century first took form in Germany, 
there had been criticism of the Church in other coun- 
tries. Indeed, from time to time during the middle 
ages, attacks had been made both on the pope and on 
the Catholic faith itself. The kings of France and 
England, though loyal Catholics, had many times 
complained bitterly because the pope had appointed 
Italian clergymen to high church offices within their 
realms. They had also complained because the pope 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 21 5 

had collected so much money in fees and contributions 
from their subjects. 

In 1393 the English king had his parliament pass 
a law forbidding Englishmen to take offices in the 
Church without the king's consent. It declared that 
all who refused to obey should be punished. About 
the same time an English priest, John Wyclif, openly 
taught that all the property of the Church in England 
could be seized by the king and used for public purposes. 
He also said that the service of a priest was not neces- 
sary for salvation ; that any person could approach 
God directly, without the aid of anyone else. 

The followers of Wyclif were easily put down in 
England ; but, far away in Bohemia, John Huss 
spread similar ideas freely for a long time. At last, 
however, he was condemned and burned as a heretic. 
Protests against the Church then died away and its 
authority seemed unquestioned. 

Growth of Criticism. At the opening of the six- 
teenth century, there came another outburst of criticism 
against the officials and practices of the Church, this 
time in Germany. The attacks were at first confined 
to certain minor matters. It was said that the monks 
were often lazy and worthless fellows who lived by 
begging. It was alleged that the fees charged by 
priests for marriages, burials, and managing the prop- 
erty of deceased persons were too high. Complaints 
were made against the exemption of Church property 
from taxation ; it was said that its property should 



2l6 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



be taxed like that of any citizen. The bishops and 
other high church officers who had great wealth were 
accused of living in luxury, while the poor village 
priests often had scarcely enough to keep soul and 
body together. Above all, the critics objected to the 

large sums of German money 
that were paid each year to 
the Church at Rome. 

The leaders in such criti- 
cism were sometimes priests 
themselves who attacked 
what they called the " abuses" 
in the Church. Among them 
was a gentle and witty scholar 
of Holland, Erasmus, who 
thought that there should be 
a reform but not an over- 
turning of the Church. In a 
little book called The Praise 
of Folly, he poked fun at the monks and laughed at 
scholars who disputed all day over some foolish ques- 
tion, such as ^' How many angels can stand on the 
point of a needle .^" Erasmus laid great stress on right 
living. He thought that selfish and corrupt men should 
be forced out of high places in the Church. He de- 
clared that men should care more about the teachings 
of Christ and less about his images. Yet Erasmus 
was loyal to the Catholic Church and wanted reforms 
to be brought about gradually and without anger. 




From an old print 



Erasmus 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 217 

Martin Luther and the Revolt against the Pope. 

Far different from other reformers in the Church was 
a German monk, Martin Luther, who Hved at the same 
time as Erasmus. Though the son of a slate-cutter, 
he had been able to obtain a university education and 
to devote himself to the study of law. Against the 
wishes of his parents he entered the priesthood and 
became an Augustine monk. Shortly afterward he 
was made a teacher of theology in the university of 
Wittenberg, in Prussian Saxony, some fifty miles 
southwest of Berlin. 

While Luther was busy teaching, a Dominican monk 
came to Wittenberg to raise money for the Church. 
Luther was stirred to anger by some things that were 
said and done by this monk. He thereupon wrote 
out ninety-five theses, or statements of ideas that he 
believed to be true. Among other things he said 
that any Christian who felt truly sorry for his sins 
would be forgiven. He added that a common man 
might very well ask why the pope, who was very rich, 
did not build St. Peter's with his own money instead 
of " taking that of the poor man." This was in 15 17. 

Three years later Luther and his writings were con- 
demned by the pope. Luther answered by burning 
the decree which condemned him. The break had 
come. Luther denied the authority of the pope and 
declared that many beliefs taught by the Church were 
errors. Above all he thought that man was to be 
saved, not by good works, but by repenting of his sins 



2l8 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



and by having faith that God's justice would save the 
repentant sinner. 

Luther kept on teaching his doctrines, protected by 
a powerful German prince, until his death in 1546. 
He made a translation of the Bible Into the German 
language for the use of the common people. He wrote 




from an old print 
Martin Luther and Three Famous Protestant Scholars 

hundreds of letters and books on religion. He appealed 
to the German princes to bring about reforms in the 
Church. But he was strongly opposed to the idea that 
people should take the matter into their own hands. 

The Lutheran Church. At first, those who did not 
like Luther made fun of his followers by calling them 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 219 

Lutherans . This term of scorn was finally accepted 
by them as a term of honor. As the years passed, many 
German princes adopted certain of Luther's teachings 
and defied the authority of the pope. They also seized 
much of the property of the Church and monasteries 
that lay within their realms. When an attempt was 
made to restore Catholic beliefs in Germany, a number 
of them signed a great " protest " against it. 

All efforts to bring about agreement between the 
pope and the Protestants were vain. In 1530 a docu- 
ment was drawn up, known as the Augsburg Confession, 
in which the main ideas of the German Protestants 
were fully set forth. This Confession became the 
basis of the new Lutheran faith and is so regarded by 
Lutheran churches everywhere to-day. 

Within ten years after Luther's death, the states of 
northern Germany and Norway, Sweden, and Den- 
mark had broken away from Rome and had become 
Protestant countries. All of them in adopting the 
new faith added to it the title Evangelical, which 
Luther himself had used to describe his doctrines. 
As evangel meant the ''gospel," Luther said that he 
was merely going back to the gospel as taught by 
Christ himself. 

The two centuries which followed Luther's age were 
full of woe for Germany. There were many religious 
wars among the Germans themselves. The Catholic 
king of France waged war after war on the Germans in 
order to get more territories along the Rhine. In many 



220 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

cases these territories were inhabited by Protestants. 
Beginning late in the seventeenth century, the Prot- 
estants turned, especially, to America as a refuge. 
Thousands of them fled across the ocean to the English 
colonies, mainly to Pennsylvania {First Book, p. 74). 
In the nineteenth century, after the religious causes 
for leaving their homeland had largely disappeared, 
Germans continued to come to America in great 
numbers. 

The Protestant Reformation in England 

Henry VIII and the Break with the Pope. When 
Martin Luther opened his stormy career as a reformer 
in Germany, England had a powerful king by the name 
of Henry VIII. Far from approving Luther's ideas, 
Henry wrote a book in which he sharply condemned 
them. In a few years, however, he himself was engaged 
in a desperate quarrel with the pope. He wanted to 
divorce his wife, Katherine of Aragon, and to marry a 
woman of his Court, Anne Boleyn. The pope refused 
his appeal for a divorce and Henry was very angry. 
Katherine's nephew, the Holy Roman Emperor, had 
just seized the city of Rome and really held the pope 
a prisoner. Henry charged that the pope was afraid 
to grant the divorce on that account. 

In his wrath, Henry declared that he, himself, would 
be sole master in England. So he got his divorce 
from an English court. Then, in 1534, he compelled 
his parliament to pass a law making him '' the only 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 221 

supreme head on earth of the Church of England." 
He thereupon seized the land owned by the monasteries 
and divided much of it among his favorites. 
He took to himself the right to appoint bishops and 
other high officials in the Church. He forced all the 
clergy to accept the new order. Those who refused 
were harshly treated. Some were banished, others 
were burned, and others were beheaded. In denying 
the authority of the pope over England, however, 
Henry at first made no important changes in the faith 
and services of the Catholic Church. Indeed, he 
treated those who wanted religious changes as savagely 
as he did those who did not want to disown the pope. 

The Growth of Protestantism in England. After 
Henry had cast off the rule of the pope, he found it 
hard to suppress those who began to cast off the Catho- 
lic faith too. In attempting to do this, he drove many 
of his subjects to Germany. There they learned the 
doctrines of Martin Luther and became converts. 
Fired with new zeal, they slipped back into England 
to spread his ideas. 

In a little while England, too, was affected by these 
preachers of reform. Some of them turned away from 
the leading ideas of the Catholic religion. Others 
declared that the images and stained windows in the 
churches were " idolatrous." Others denounced fast 
days and holy days. 

When Henry died and the crown passed to his son, 
Edward VI, in 1547, the Protestants triumphed. 



222 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

New articles of religious faith were drawn up and all 
English people were forced to adopt them. Although 
the Catholic religion was later restored for five years 
under Queen Mary, it was impossible to hold to the 
old order. England was destined to be Protestant. 

The Established Church of England. In 1558 
Queen Elizabeth came to the throne. Soon after 
she was crowned, the parliament adopted a form 
of Protestant faith for all Englishmen again. By a 
law known as the Act of Supremacy, the power of the 
pope over England was once more denied. The queen 
was declared to be supreme in religious matters. A 
creed of thirty-nine articles of faith was written down 
and every one was ordered to accept it. A uniform 
service for all churches was prepared and all clergy- 
men were forced to follow it. In short, a Church of 
England was established by law. Its faith and services 
were fixed by law. All people were required to attend 
its services and believe in its doctrines. Punishments 
were fixed for those who refused to obey. 

Moreover, the power of the sovereign was greatly 
enlarged. The queen could appoint all bishops and 
archbishops and forbid the clergy to hold meetings 
without her consent. To call the queen a heretic 
was treason. To attend mass was made a crime. 
When a bishop complained to Queen Elizabeth against 
the seizure of some of his lands, she scornfully told 
him that she had made him and would unmake him 
if he did not yield the property at once. Both Catholics 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 223 

and Protestants who openly rejected the Established 
Church were cruelly punished. Having set up this 
new order, Elizabeth and her advisers thought that 
peace would come to the troubled realm. 

Puritans and Separatists. But there was to be no 
peace. The system was hardly agreed upon before 
some persons sought to change it. A very powerful 
group, which grew steadily in numbers, wanted to 
^'purify" the new church. They wanted to do this 
by omitting parts of the service, taking images away 
from church buildings, and making other reforms. 
They were therefore nicknamed Puritans by their 
enemies, and they proudly adopted the title. This 
group, or party, did not, however, seek to overthrow 
the Church of England or to deny its authority. 

It was certain members of this body of reformers 
who, after struggling against the king and the church, 
fled to America in 1629 and founded the Massachusetts 
Bay colony {First Book, pp. 59-65). Even when the 
Puritans sailed away, they were counted members 
of the Church of England ; and -such they remained 
for a while after they reached America. In time, how- 
ever, they left the English church and formed little 
groups of their own — congregations — for religious 
worship. Such was the origin of the Congregational 
churches to be found all over New England and in 
other parts of the United States to-day. 

Along with the Puritans there sprang up in England 
another Protestant group that utterly rejected the 



224 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Church of England. They flatly declared that It was 
no true church, that its services were idolatry, and 
that its bishops had no lawful power over Christians. 
They asserted that the rightful form of church was 
described in the New Testament as a simple congre- 
gation composed of all those who believed in Christ. 
A church, they said, '' is a company or number of 
Christians or believers who by a willing covenant 
made with their God are under the government of 
God and Christ and keep his laws in one holy com- 
munion." Members of this sect were called Separatists, 
because they proposed to separate entirely from the 
Church of England and set up independent congrega- 
tions of their own. Of course, the king did not like 
the Separatists at all. They were always in danger 
of punishment. So many of them fled from the realm. 
It was the members of this group that founded the 
colony of Plymouth in 1620 {First Book, pp. 57-59). 

The Increase in Religious Sects. Some of those 
who drifted away from the Church of England believed 
that a certain form of baptism was necessary to sal- 
vation. John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim^ s Progress, 
held this view. So did Roger Williams, of Rhode Island 
{First Book, pp. 62-63). He is sometimes called the 
founder of the Baptist churches in America. From 
small beginnings sprang the Baptist congregations of 
the United States, which now have nearly ten million 
members. 

One powerful body of Separatists, or independents, 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 



225 



was the Presbyterians, who were especially strong 
in Scotland and the north of Ireland. They counted 
among their great teachers John Calvin of Geneva 
and John Knox of Edinburgh. Like the other inde- 
pendents, the Presbyterians were oppressed by the 
English government. Shortly after the English colo- 




t rom an old print 



The Cottage of John Bunyan in England 



nies were founded, they therefore flocked to the New 
World also. In New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the 
inland sections of the South they were very numerous. 
They took the lead in the western movement toward 
the Mississippi. 

Another sect that rejected the Established Church 
was the Quakers, or, as they called themselves, the 




European Settlements in America 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 227 

Friends. They followed the teaching of George Fox. 
One of their leaders, William Penn, founded the colony 
of Pennsylvania. There the Friends were free to wor- 
ship God according to " the light " which they had 
received. They granted this same religious freedom 
to others. 

The dissenters from the Established Church usually 
combined with their religious views a dislike for the 
government of England because it tried to force on 
them the religion made lawful by the parliament. 
So they carried with them to America political as well 
as religious ideas. They found it possible even to 
work with the Catholics, who had founded Maryland, 
in the great War for American Independence {First 
Book, pp. 55-56). 

Results of the Protestant Revolt 
Religious Wars. For more than a hundred years 
Europe was filled with religious wars, civil and 
international. The Dutch in The Netherlands, then 
under the rule of the Catholic king of Spain, became 
Protestants. Soon afterward, they rejected the rule 
of their sovereign. In a terrible war they won their 
independence, which was recognized in 1648. 

In France, Protestants known as Huguenots began 
to appear shortly after Luther defied the pope, but by 
stern measures the government kept them from becom- 
ing very powerful. Still they were numerous enough 
to excite the alarm of the Catholics. France was 



228 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

divided into two parties and civil wars followed. 
Finally, in 1598, the king issued the Edict of Nantes, 
which gave a certain toleration to the Protestants. 
This Edict was in force for nearly a hundred years. 
Then it was revoked by Louis XIV. All Frenchmen 
had to be Catholics or run the risk of punishment. 
Huguenots were persecuted. Thousands of them fled 
to England and Prussia. Others came to America. 
New Rochelle, in New York, was one of the places 
founded by Huguenots. It was named after their 
old home, Rochelle, in France. 

For a time after Luther's day the Protestant and 
Catholic princes in Germany managed to live on fairly 
good terms. Afterwards, however, they began a 
bloody strife known as the Thirty Years' War (1618- 
48), which at length involved France, Spain, Sweden, 
and Denmark as well. This was a terrible war. Hun- 
dreds of German villages were utterly destroyed ; 
some cities lost half or more of their inhabitants ; 
and the whole country was left helpless and poverty- 
stricken. In the end neither party was victorious. 
Neither of them could master the other. As a result, 
toleration for all branches of the Protestant faith was 
granted in Germany. 

Religious Persecution. In addition to open religious 
wars there were persecutions within each of the coun- 
tries where religious disputes appeared. The Catholic 
Church had always required strict obedience to its 
authority. Long before Protestantism appeared, it 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 



229 



had turned heretics who would not repent over to the 
government to be punished. This practice the Catho- 
lics continued in 

those countries 
where they re- 
tained their power. 
Protestants, on 
the other hand, 
while they object- 
ed to such cruel 
treatment for them- 
selves, often re- 
sorted to it in their 
own time of tri- 
umph. Lutherhad 
no more thought 
of allowing every 
man to worship 
God according to 
his own conscience 
than had the pope 
at Rome. The very 
idea was hateful 
and dangerous in 
the sight of both 
parties in the sixteenth century. Catholics impris- 
oned, banished, and burned Protestants. In their 
turn many Protestant sects treated Catholics in the 
same way. They even punished with the same severity 




From an old print 



English Judges Condemning Protestant 
Dissenters to Prison 



230 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

other Protestants who differed from them. When 
Henry VIII in England broke with the pope he burned 
many sweet-spirited and noble Catholics, like Sir 
Thomas More, who were unable to accept him as the 
head of the Church. Likewise he put to death equally 
sweet-spirited and noble Protestants who would not 
do his will or who sought to make changes in religion 
which he did not approve. So it happened that 
thousands of men and women. Catholics and Prot- 
estants alike, were ready to flee to America when it 
was opened for settlement. 

When religious persecution died away in western 
Europe, it was kept up in eastern Europe. The 
Russians and Poles persecuted the Jews, and the Turks 
persecuted the Christians. Even in our own time, 
religious persecution goes on in many regions. Thus 
for more than three hundred years the desire to escape 
from religious oppression has been one of the powerful 
motives that sent emigrants to America. 

The Growth of Toleration. As we have said, few 
of the early Protestant sects believed that every one 
should have the right to choose his own religious faith 
or to belong to no church if he so decided. With some 
exceptions each sect was in fact as eager to compel 
every person to accept its faith as the Catholic Church 
had been in the middle ages. The idea of complete 
religious freedom seemed as distasteful to the early 
Lutherans and Puritans as it had to the Catholics. 

Nevertheless, after centuries of persecution the 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 231 

spirit of toleration gained ground. Nobler ideas and 
gentler manners helped. People became weary of the 
turmoil and hatred born of persecution. Then, as 
the sects grew in numbers in spite of persecution, no 
one of them could suppress all the others. Finally, 
as interest in worldly aifairs increased, religious dis- 
putes died down. As if by accident rather than by 
design, the enlightened people of every religious de- 
nomination gave up the idea of punishing those who 
differed from them. They finally adopted the modern 
notion that ^^ every one has a right to worship God 
according to the dictates of his conscience." 

Though America did not at first escape entirely from 
the Old World heritage of religious intolerance, it did 
lead all mankind toward the ideal of religious freedom. 
The first amendment to our Constitution provided that 
Congress should make no law '' respecting an estab- 
lishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise 
thereof." This clause, adopted in 1791, was a land- 
mark in the long struggle for religious toleration. 

Translations of the Bible. The Protestant Reforma- 
tion brought with it wars and persecutions, but it 
also aroused a new interest in reading the Bible and 
other religious books. The Old Testament had been 
written originally in Hebrew and the New in Greek 
— both languages which were utterly foreign to the 
peoples of western Europe. To overcome this diffi- 
culty, a translation of the Bible had been made into 
Latin about the end of the fourth century. This 



232 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

edition, approved by the Catholic Church, was called 
the Vulgate, because it was in the tongue of the multi- 
tude — vulgus meaning in Latin "the people." From 
time to time parts of the Bible had also been translated 
into German, English, French, and other languages. 
For example, many long passages had been done into 
Anglo-Saxon in the reign of Alfred the Great, and the 
whole Bible was translated about 1383 by the English 
reformer, John Wyclif. 

The revival of learning (p. 147), which gave stu- 
dents a special interest in the Greek language, led 
them to turn with new zeal to the life of Christ. It 
was to be found in the New Testament, written in Greek 
by those who knew him and had labored and suffered 
with him. Speaking of the Gospels, Erasmus, a leader 
of the "New Learning," wrote: "Were we to have 
seen him with our own eyes, we should not have so 
intimate a knowledge as they give us of Christ, speaking, 
healing, dying, rising again, as it were in our very 
presence." Then, in a burst of enthusiasm, he ex- 
claimed : " I wish that they were translated into all 
languages, so as to be read and understood not only by 
Scots and Irishmen but even by Saracens and Turks. 
I long for the day when the husbandman shall sing 
portions of them as he follows the plow, when the 
weaver shall hum them to the tune of his shuttle, when 
the traveler shall while away with their stories the weari- 
ness of the journey." The wish was fulfilled, but not 
always by translators belonging to the Catholic Church. 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 233 

The great translations Into German and English 
were made by Protestants, who naturally enough gave 
a Protestant meaning, wherever possible, to the Hebrew 
and Greek words. Martin Luther, as we have seen, 
prepared for his followers a German Bible in the lan- 
guage of the common people. About the same time 
several versions appeared in English. As some con- 
fusion arose from the various versions of the original 
tongues, an official English translation, under the di- 
rection of King James I, was published in 161 1. This 
was the famous King James or Authorized version. 
For nearly three hundred years It was the accepted 
English edition of the Holy Scriptures and was used 
by all English Protestant denominations. The Roman 
Catholic clergy also brought out an official Catholic 
version in English known as the Douay Bible. 

It Is impossible to overestimate the influence of the 
King James version of the Bible on English life and 
thought. The masses, who had known the Old and 
New Testaments only through the teachings of priests, 
could now read for themselves. For a long time the 
Bible was almost the only book which the common 
people had. It was at once their guide to ancient 
history, their collection of marvelous stories, their 
record of human trials and sufferings. In It they 
found words of thanksgiving for joyous occasions and 
words of solace in hours of death and sorrow. 

That was not all. The very language of the English 
edition made a deep Impress upon all English literature. 



234 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

The translators chose the clear and simple words of 
everyday usage, and so they set a model of style for 
English writers of all times. Leaders in American 
aflPairs as far apart in centuries as William Penn and 
Abraham Lincoln found inspiration in the noble 
thoughts and clear language of the Bible. When 
Lincoln opened his Gettysburg address with '' Four 
score and seven years ago," he used the old and 
simple style of the Bible. 

The Spread of Education. The Bible was also a 
book of education. Thousands of humble folk, who 
had never been in school a day, learned to read in order 
that they might study it for themselves. An English 
bishop lamented that " cobblers, tailors, felt-makers 
and such-like trash " were taking it upon themselves 
to study the Bible and teach its message to their neigh- 
bors. 

Whoever has the power to read has open before him 
a gateway to knowledge which is closed to illiterate 
persons. Those who learned their letters by poring 
over the Bible were later able to read the plays of 
the great Shakespeare, as well as books and pamphlets 
on politics and other subjects. By seeking knowledge 
in religious matters, they learned about '' the mysteries " 
of kings and governments. Thus the translations of 
the Bible helped to prepare the people to govern them- 
selves. 

The Reformation also helped greatly in the spread 
of schools for the masses. In the middle ages, the 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 235 

idea of giving every one an education was not looked 
upon as practicable or desirable. The schools were few 
and colleges were mainly for the training of men who 
wished to enter the priesthood. As the various Prot- 
estant congregations sprang up, however, the members 
of each were careful to bring up their children in their 
own faith. Schools were founded to teach children to 
read the Bible and to instruct them in religious doc- 
trines. Thus the ability to read became more wide- 
spread than ever before in human history. Puritans, 
Presbyterians, Baptists, and other denominations, in- 
cluding the Catholics, all established schools in which 
their religious views were taught. Every college 
founded in America in colonial times, except the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, was established by a religious 
denomination to train young men in its faith and serv- 
ices. The natural sciences, like botany, chemistry, 
and physiology, received no more attention in the first 
Protestant schools than they had in the universities of 
the middle ages. 

Questions and Problems 

I. I. What is the meaning of the word "Protestant" as ap- 
plied to the Protestant churches ? 2. For how long a time was 
the Catholic Church supreme in western Europe ? (Recall the 
time of Constantine the Great and consider 15 17 as marking the 
beginning of the Protestant Reformation.) How does this com- 
pare with the period from the beginning of the Protestant Reforma- 
tion to the present time ? 3. Why are the names of John Wyclif 
and John Huss remembered .? 4. One complaint against the 



236 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Catholic Church was that Its property was free from taxation ; 
is church property free from taxation to-day? 5. How did the 
views of Erasmus differ from those of WycHf and Huss ? 6. Can 
you think of any reasons that will explain why the revolt against 
the Church came first from the clergy rather than from laymen ? 
7. How did Luther's views differ from those of Erasmus ? Why 
is Luther rather than Wyclif or Huss regarded as the founder of 
the Protestant churches ? 

H. I. What were the important differences between the 
Protestant Reformation in Germany and in England ? 2. What 
is meant by an "Established Church"? In what ways did the 
Established Church of England resemble the Catholic Church ? 
How did it differ ? How did it differ from the Lutheran Church ? 
In America to-day, the Protestant Episcopal Church most closely 
resembles the Established Church of England. If there is such 
a church in your community perhaps you can find out some of 
the ways in which it differs from other Protestant churches ; 
for example, in the conduct of its services, the construction of 
the church building, the dress of the clergy. 3. How did the 
Puritans and the Separatists resemble each other ? In what 
important respects did they differ ? 4. In what ways did the 
Baptists, the Presbyterians, and the Quakers differ? 5. Make 
a list of the religious sects represented in your community. (Prob- 
ably some of them are not mentioned in this chapter.) If possible, 
find out something about the origin of these various sects. 

III. I. Give as many reasons as you can to explain why the 
multiplication of religious sects gave rise to so many wars during 
the period that we are studying. 2. What is the difference 
between a "civil" war and an "international" war? Which of 
the three wars mentioned in the text were civil, and which were 
international? 3. What is meant by "religious toleration"? 
4. In what important ways did intolerance and persecution in 
Europe influence our country ? What American colonies were 
founded by people who sought religious freedom? 5. People 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 



237 



naturally regard and cherish the Idea that they have fought for 
and suffered for; perhaps you can give some of the reasons that 
explain why the people of western Europe and of North America 
now believe so firmly in religious toleration. You might well 
think of this as an ideal for which a great price has been paid. 
What was the price ? 6. Another great ideal had its birth in 
the troubled times which we are studying; namely, the ideal 
of "universal" education — that is, the education of all of the 
people in at least the rudiments of learning. In what way did 
the Protestant Reformation make a universal knowledge of read- 
ing important.? In what other ways did the multiplication of 



religious sects promote education ? 




Era of the Reformation 



238 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Suggestions for Reading 

Best — Merry England. 

Creighton, Louise — Stories from English History, xxx-xxxiii, 

xxxvili ; Longmans. 
Dale — Landmarks of British History, vlii. 
O'Neill — The Story of the World, xxxi. 
Van Loon — The Story of Mankind {School edition), xliv. 
Warren — Stories from English History, xvli. 



CHAPTER X 

THE GREAT POLITICAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND 

The Protestant Reformation, at first, left unchecked 
the power of kings, landlords, and clergy. Wherever 
the Catholic Church was overthrown, another church 
was set up in its stead and the people at large had 
to accept the new faith as they had the old. In 
this change, Protestant kings really got more power 
for a time because they were enriched by the property 
they took from the Catholic Church. But their sudden 
gain was destined to be short-lived in England. The 
Protestant revolt there was followed in the next cen- 
tury by a political revolt against the king himself. 
This was the first of the great democratic revolutions 
that have swept through the world during the past 
three hundred years. 

The Old Political and Social Classes in England 

The King and the Established Church. The acts of 
James I helped to start the English political revolution. 
When he was crowned king of England in 1603, he found 
himself in a place of great power. He could appoint all 
the officers high and low without the consent of Parlia- 
ment. He alone could permit men to form companies 

239 



240 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 




GREAT POLITICAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND 241 

to explore, colonize, or trade beyond the seas. All land 
which was discovered belonged to him, and he could 
grant it to individuals or companies at his pleasure. 
He could issue royal orders which were as binding on 
his subjects as the laws of Parliament. 

The Church of England added to his strength. All 
Englishmen, as we have seen, had to be members of 
it and obey its commands. The king appointed the 
archbishops and bishops, who governed the Church 
and watched over the clergy of lower rank. Every- 
where the Church taught that obedience to the king 
was obedience to the will of God. 

The Nobility. The power of the king was also in- 
creased by the help he had from the nobles. They were 
few in number and no common man could become 
a noble unless the king raised him to that rank and 
gave him a title. Much of the land of England, how- 
ever, was owned by these great lords — dukes, earls, and 
barons. On their lands they were very powerful, 
although they could no longer defy the king as their 
ancestors had done (p. 177). They were not independ- 
ent. They were courtiers. They held high offices 
under the king and served him in many ways in war 
and peace. 

The Country Gentlemen and the Merchants. Below 
the nobility in rank were the large landowners who did 
not possess noble title. They were usually called "" the 
country gentry." They had large estates, tilled by peas- 
ants, and lived in handsome manor houses. They 



242 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



often served as members of the House of Commons, and 
there boldly asserted that the king could not tax 
them without their consent. They were not often seen 
at the royal court and received few favors from the 
crown. They were proud and independent in spirit. 
It was they who led in all efforts to curb the power of 
the king. From this class came men like Cromwell and 





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Hampden, who, in the days of revolution-, defied the 
kmg. From this class also came men like John Win- 
throp and John Endicott, who migrated to the New 
World and made the beginnings of a new nation there. 
Even more independent in spirit were the English 
merchants. They grew steadily in numbers as the 



GREAT POLITICAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND 243 

trade of England multiplied. They did not own vast 
landed estates. Their wealth was in shops, ware- 
houses, and ships. Their ranks were not closed to out- 
siders, for any successful business man could secure a 
place among them. The seats of the merchants were in 
the towns like London, Bristol, Plymouth, and Man- 
chester. Representatives of the towns in Parliament 
were usually merchants or neighboring landed gentry. 

These two classes, welded together, led in the rev- 
olution that overthrew the king in 1649: y In fact, 
they made themselves the ruling classes of England 
before the end of the century. 

The Other Ranks. Among the masses there were 
three distinct groups. There were, first, the yeomen, 
who were the free and proud owners of small farms. 
Sometimes they worked with their own hands at 
the plow and at threshing. 

The second and most numerous group was composed 
of the agricultural laborers. They were descendants 
of the former serfs. Serfdom itself had disappeared 
in England, and the former bondmen had become land- 
less men who worked for wages on the great estates. 
They were usually poor and wretched, and just at this 
time their lot was becoming harder. The landlords 
found it more profitable to grow wool than to raise grain, 
and turned their fields into pastures. Thousands of 
acres of land were withdrawn from cultivation ; laborers 
and their families, therefore, had to leave the soil for 
the poorhouse or for a life of semistarvation in the 



244 <^UR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

towns. The writings of this time are burdened with 
complaints about the '' surplus of people." Sending 
people to America was therefore looked upon as a way 
of getting rid of the surplus population. 

It was from the yeoman stock and the class of agri- 
cultural laborers that most of the immigrants to 
America were first drawn. 

More fortunate than the agricultural laborers were 
the artisans, the skilled workmen of the towns. English 
trade grew by leaps and bounds after the discovery 
of the water routes to India and the New World. 
English cloth and cutlery were famous in Russia and 
India for their quality and finish. English weavers, 
dyers, cutlers, potters, and other skilled workmen 
supplied the goods which were exchanged for spices, 
tea, sugar, and the commodities of the East and West. 
The artisans, like the merchants, were often inde- 
pendent in spirit. Their numbers increased as foreign 
trade grew. They made the articles which the mer- 
chants carried to distant lands. Anything that helped 
trade helped them. Anything that interfered with 
trade injured them. Naturally they took the side 
of the merchants, who wanted the king to let them 
alone. Among the officers in the revolutionary army 
which overthrew King Charles I there were tailors, 
brewers, linen drapers, weavers, and silk merchants. 
Since the artisans usually had little difficulty in finding 
employment in England, they^ did not at first take 
kindly to migration to America. 



GREAT POLITICAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND 245 

A Century of Revolution 

The Arbitrary Conduct of Kings — Divine Right. 

The English people in general seem to have been 
fairly well contented when James I came to the throne 
in 1603. If he had been moderate in conduct, mild in 
speech, and willing to make terms with the people, 
there doubtless would have been little trouble in Eng- 
land. But James and his son, Charles I, whose 
combined reigns lasted from 1603 to 1649, were poorly 
fitted to deal with a nation that had any pride. 

Both of them taught and practiced the doctrine of 
divine right — that kings had power from God and 
could do no wrong. James I was especially haughty 
in talking about his own ''' majesty." '' The state of 
monarchy," he informed Parliament, '' is the suprem- 
est thing on earth, for kings are not only God's lieu- 
tenants upon earth and sit upon God's throne, but 
even by God himself they are. called Gods." That 
was not enough for him. He added : '' As to dispute 
what God may do is blasphemy, so it is sedition in 
subjects to dispute what a king may do in the height 
of his power." No one could teach, preach, or publish 
a book without a license from royal officers, and 
anyone who questioned the king's rights and claims 
was liable to severe punishment. 

In addition to teaching the doctrine of divine right, 
James and Charles both treated their subjects haughtily 
and harshly. They levied taxes without the consent 



246 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

of Parliament. They compelled their wealthy subjects 
to lend them money. They Imprisoned men like John 
Hampden who would not pay taxes laid by royal order. 
They encouraged the Church of England to hunt down 
and turn over for punishment those who refused to 



^mm. 




From an old print 
One of King Charles I's Officers, Condemned by Parliament, 
ON the Way to the Scaffold 

obey Its commands. They dismissed judges who 
failed to carry out their decrees. If Parliament com- 
plained, the members were sent home. 

The House of Commons Opposes the King. Leader- 
ship in opposing the king fell to the House of Commons. 



GREAT POLITICAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND 247 

In that body the country gentlemen and the merchants 
were masters, and to them taxation without their con- 
sent was especially hateful. They firmly but respect- 
fully informed the king that they would not grant him 
large sums of money while he treated them as if 
they had no rights. Since they held the purse strings^ 
they compelled him, in 1628, to approve the Petition 
of Right — a document often placed with Magna Carta 
(p. 177) among the great landmarks of English history. 

In the Petition of Right, three important principles 
were laid down : (i) no one should be imprisoned with- 
out a regular trial ; (2) a royal decree setting up the 
rule of army officers should be revoked ; and (3) taxes, 
loans, and gifts collected without consent of Parlia- 
ment were unlawful. 

King Charles made these promises only to break 
them. He then ruled for eleven years without calling 
Parliament together. When at length he needed money 
and summoned Parliament, in 1640, he found it in an 
angry mood. It had two of the king's closest advisers 
put to death ; it set free the victims of the king's anger 
who were in prison ; it abolished two of the high 
courts that had helped the king to oppress his subjects. 
Finally Parliament demanded control over the army, 
which the king claimed as his own. 

Civil War. — Oliver Cromwell. Charles, angry and 
frightened, refused to give up his power over his soldiers. 
He knew that, if he lost the army, he would be help- 
less. So he decided to fight for his rights and raised 



248 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



the royal battle flag in 1642. The northwestern part 
of his kingdom came to his aid ; that is, the old and 




feudal part. Against him were the more populous 
counties and the thriving towns. 



GREAT POLITICAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND 249 

Under the leadership of a stern warrior, Oliver Crom- 
well, the revolutionary army overcame the king's troops 
in a civil war. King Charles was taken prisoner, 
tried, and executed. A Commonwealth, or Republic, 
was then proclaimed in England. 

The Religious Revolt. United with the revolt 
against the king was another revolt against the 
Church. That, too, came gradually. When James 
ascended the throne, there was already in England 
a small party of reformers who wanted to make minor 
changes in the church services. As we have seen 
(p. 223) they were known as Puritans. They handed 
James a respectful petition on reform, but he scorn- 
fully laughed at them. " If this be all your party 
hath to say," he shouted at the spokesmen of the 
Puritans, ^' I will make them conform themselves or 
else harry them out of the land." 

By this sharp speech, says the English historian 
Gardner, James " sealed his own fate and that of Eng- 
land forever." And it might be added, ^' the fate of 
New England as well," for the people whom he '' har- 
ried " out of the land went across the sea to seek liberty 
of worship for themselves. 

The Puritans, though surprised at the king's curt 
refusal to listen, kept on demanding reforms. They 
were joined in their attacks on the Established Church 
by another group — the Separatists or Independ- 
ents (p. 223). The Puritans wanted to make minor 
changes in the Church ; the Separatists rejected that 



250 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Church entirely. Though they differed in their views, 
Puritans and Independents united in opposing the 
control exercised over them by the king and Church. 
They were both persecuted and punished. More than 
one man had his ears cut off and his cheeks branded 
with hot irons for attacking the Church. Men who 
were imprisoned for refusing to pay illegal taxes found 
as their companions in jail men who held unlawful 
religious opinions. So religion and politics were com- 
bined. Thus the revolt against the king became a 
religious revolt. When the monarchy was pulled down 
in 1649, the power of the Church was broken. 

The Dictatorship of Oliver CromweU. After the 
monarchy and the Church were overturned, the revo- 
lutionists had to face the difficult task of creating 
a form of government for themselves. Then their 
troubles began in earnest. Before long, they were di- 
vided among themselves and began to quarrel one with 
another. Some wanted only a few changes in the Eng- 
lish form of government. Others wanted many changes. 

In the end, the great soldier who had led the revolu- 
tion, Oliver Cromwell, came to the top as dictator 
He ruled England with an iron hand ; so there was no 
liberty, after all. He punished those who would not 
obey him, collected taxes at will, and governed in a ruth- 
less fashion. While he lived, he kept the government 
going. After his death, in 1658, his poor, weak son was 
unable to control England. Two years later the elder 
son of Charles I was called to the throne as Charles II. 



GREAT POLITICAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND 25 1 




252 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



The Chastened Monarch. The crowning of Charles II 
could not undo the work of Cromwell and the revolu- 
tion. The Church of England was " established " 
again. The bones of Cromwell were dug up and hanged 
in chains, but the spirit of revolt was still abroad in 




From an old print 
King Charles II Greeted by His Subjects on Being 
Called to the Throne 



the land. Many of the men who had helped to put 
Charles I to death were executed, but the methods of 
James I and Charles I would never be tolerated again 
in England. 

Charles II was lazy and loved pleasure. He was 



GREAT POLITICAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND 253 

careful not to walk in the footsteps of his father 
and grandfather. He said that he wanted to keep his 
crown on his head and his head on his shoulders. 
He succeeded. For twenty-five years he reigned, and 
then died peacefully in his bed. 

James II and the Second Revolution. James II, 
Charles' brother and successor, was a different sort of 
man. He was a sincere Catholic and earnestly strove 
to bring England back to the old faith. At the same 
time, he was as harsh in manner as his father, 
Charles I. He laid taxes, arrested his subjects, and 
set aside laws as if he were a czar rather than a king 
under the control of Parliament. After three years 
of his rule, his discontented subjects rose in their 
wrath and expelled him. To save his neck, he fled 
from England in 1688. Parliament called to the throne 
his niece, Mary, and her husband, William, the Prince 
of Orange in Holland. 

The Results of the Revolutions 
The Supremacy of Parliament. Before giving the 
crown to William and Mary, Parliament passed a 
law, known as the Bill of Rights, which set forth the 
chief results of the revolution. This bill is as famous 
in English history as the Great Charter (p. 177) and 
the Petition of Right (p. 247). 

The Bill of Rights first set forth the evil deeds of 
James H. Then it declared that the king could not 
set aside the laws, levy taxes, or keep a standing army 



254 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

in time of peace without the consent of Parliament. 
The Bill also declared certain rights of persons. It 
proclaimed freedom of speech for members of Parlia- 
ment, the right of the people to petition the king, and the 
right of Protestant subjects to bear arms. It forbade 
cruel and unusual punishments and excessive fines. 
Some of the very language of this Bill of Rights is 
to be found in the Constitution of the United States, 
especially in the amendments. 

The great document was read by an agent of Parlia- 
ment to William and Mary, and they agreed to abide 
by it. Thus Parliament became supreme in England. 
^' We accept what you have offered us," said William. 
Divine right was dead in England. Shortly afterwards, 
an act of Parliament was passed granting religious 
toleration to all except Catholics and Unitarians. 
Henceforward Protestants could hold religious meet- 
ings and worship God according to their consciences. 
Many years were to pass, however, before religious 
freedom was granted to all. 

The English Constitution. It was by such laws as 
Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights that the English 
system of government was fixed. The English people 
never held a national convention to draft a complete 
constitution. A great deal of their plan of government 
is not written down at all. It is unwritten, that 
is, consists of customs that have grown up through 
the years. That part which is written consists of impor- 
tant laws like the Bill of Rights. 



GREAT POLITICAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND 255 

The Meaning of the Revolutions for America. Dur- 
ing this long and bitter contest in England every 
English colony in America, except Georgia, was founded 
{First Book, pp. 51-78). The religious disputes before 
and during the first revolution drove many Puri- 
tans and Separatists to New England. On the other 
hand, while the Puritan party was supreme under 
Cromwell, many of the king's friends, Cavaliers as 
they were called, were forced to flee to Virginia for 
safety. Henceforward, England's interest was to be 
mainly colonial and commercial, and her activities 
were to spread to every part of the world. 

The revolt against the harsh power of the king in 
England also meant more freedom for the American 
colonies to grow up in their own way and to manage 
their own affairs. James II had attempted to subdue 
the American colonies as well as his subjects at home. 
The Americans therefore rejoiced when they heard 
of his overthrow. With James II passed away the 
last arbitrary English king for many a year. Seventy 
years, in fact, were to pass before another English ruler 
undertook to meddle personally with American affairs. 

After William and Mary were dead, the crown 
passed to Mary's sister, Anne. Then it went to George 

I, a great-grandson of James I, a German prince who 
did not even know the English language and to the 
end cared only for his German home. His son, George 

II, learned to speak English with an accent, but never 
undertook to rule harshly in England. He married 



256 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

a German wife, and preferred to live in his German 
palace. During the reigns of these sovereigns, that 
is, from 1688 to 1760, the English colonists in America 
were free to go their own way as far as the king was 
concerned. Not until George III came to the throne, 
in 1760, was royal meddling in American affairs re- 
newed. 

How the Ideas of American Independence Took Form. 
The English revolution of 1688 not only weakened 
the power of the king at home ; it proclaimed ideas of 
human rights which were many years later used by 
Americans in their revolt against George III. 

These ideas were best set forth in the works of John 
Locke, a writer of singular power. He was the son 
of a Puritan gentleman, a graduate of Oxford Univer- 
sity and a student of government. About the time 
that James II was overthrown, Locke published a 
book in which he attacked the theory of divine right 
and asserted, instead, the rights of the people. He 
declared that men were born with a right to freedom 
and equal opportunity ; that the end of government 
was the good of mankind. Then he went on to say 
that whenever any government violated the life, liberty, 
and property of the people, the people had a right 
to abolish it and establish a new one that suited them 
better. 

Here, in other words, are the doctrines set forth in 
the American Declaration of Independence. Thomas 
Jefferson, the author of the Declaration {First Book, 



GREAT POLITICAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND 257 

pp. 132-136), was familiar with the writings of Locke. 
From them, no doubt, he drew many of his ideas. 
So the defense of the English revolution of 1688 was 
to become the defense of the American revolution 
of 1776. 

Europe Aroused. On the continent of Europe, as 
well as in the American colonies, the English revolution 
made a great stir. Kings and princes were shocked 
at the uprising of the English people. It was the 
first disturbance of the kind since the days of ancient 
Rome and there was no telling how it would end. 
*^ The news of the king's death," says the historian 
Green, '' was received throughout Europe with a thrill 
of horror. The Czar of Russia drove the English 
envoy from his court.. The ambassador of France was 
withdrawn on the proclamation of the republic. Hol- 
land took the lead in open acts of hostility." 

Though kings and princes were shocked at the 
English revolution, the people of Europe became inter- 
ested in English ideas. In a hundred years, the king, 
nobles, and clergy of France were to be overthrown 
just as they had been in England. All the famous 
French thinkers who prepared the minds of the French 
people for their uprising either studied in England 
or were familiar with English writings. The works 
of Locke were translated into French and studied by 
French popular leaders. The English ideas of (i) a 
free press, (2) a limited monarchy, (3) a supreme 
Parliament representing the nation, and (4) a moderate 



258 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

religious toleration spread far and wide in France. 
Just one century after William and Mary faced the 
English Parliament and agreed to abide by its laws, 
the French king, Louis XVI, faced the French nation 
and learned that he was no longer master in his realm. 

Questions and Exercises 

L I. What is the difference between a religious revoh or 
revohition and a political revolution ? Which of these two kinds 
of revolution was represented by the American War for Inde- 
pendence ? 2. In what ways did the revolt against the Church 
increase the power of the kings? 3. State the important dif- 
ferences among the following ranks or classes in England : the 
king, the nobility, the landed gentry, the merchants, the yeomen, 
the artisans, the farm laborers. Which of these classes would be 
likely to side with the king in case of a quarrel, and why ^ Which 
would be likely to unite against the king ^ 

II. I. What is meant by the "divine right" of kings ,^ Try 
to imagine what life in our country would be like if we had a king 
who believed in "divine right" and who ruled as James I and 
Charles I ruled England. 2. Why did the landed gentry and 
the merchants especially dislike to have the king levy taxes as he 
pleased ^ Why would they be likely to object to this more than 
the yeomen, the artisans, and the laborers.^ 3. Of the three 
important principles laid down in the Petition of Right, which 
one do you consider the most important, and why ^ 4. How 
did it happen that the political revolt in England became also a 
religious revolt.^ 5. We all agree that Americans should know 
something about their own great heroes like Washington and 
Franklin ; are there any reasons why Americans should also re- 
member the name of Oliver Cromwell ? 6. What is meant by 
a "dictator".? Do you think that a "dictatorship" like that of 
Oliver Cromwell is ever justified .? Give reasons for your answer 



GREAT POLITICAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND 259 

III. I. What liberties did the people of England gain through 
the Bill of Rights ? What important powers were thereafter lost 
to the kings ? 2. How does the English constitution differ 
from the constitution of our country? 3. How did the English 
Revolution influence American history ? 4. In studying chap- 
ter ix, we found that two great ideals grew up after the Prot- 
estant Reformation, — the Ideal of religious toleration and the 
Ideal of universal education. In the present chapter, what other 
ideals have been seen to take form .^ 5. "Freedom of speech" 
is generally thought of as the right to criticize the acts of those 
in positions of authority, especially in the government; why 
was this an advance over the "divine right" of kings.? Does 
"freedom of speech" mean that anyone can say anything that he 
pleases .? What might happen to a man who said something 
untrue about another person with the result that this person's 
reputation was injured ? Even to-day it is generally believed 
that "freedom of speech" in time of war must be restricted; 
give reasons that justify this belief. 6. Another ideal established 
by the English revolution was the one that played so important 
a part in the American War for Independence, — ■ "Taxation with- 
out representation is tyranny." Explain the meaning of this. 
Are you "represented" in the bodies that levy taxes In this coun- 
try .? How.? 7. A third ideal might be called "humaneness 
in government." Both the Bill of Rights and our own Constitu- 
tion forbid "cruel and unusual punishments." What punish- 
ments mentioned In this chapter as having been practiced by the 
English kings could not be inflicted by courts of law In our coun- 
try to-day.? 8. Still another ideal Is represented by the "right 
of trial by jury." What is a "jury".? . Why is a trial by jury 
likely to be fairer than a trial by a single judge .? 

Suggestions for Reading 

Creighton — Stories from English History, xxxix-xlii. 
Dale — Landmarks of British History, ix. 



26o OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Marshall, H. E. — Through Great Britain and Ireland zvith Crom- 
well; Stokes. 
O'Neill — The Story of the Worlds xxxiv. 
Van Loon — The Story of Mankind {School edition), xlv, li. 
Warren — Stories from English History, xxvli-xxviii, xxxii-xL 



CHAPTER XI 

THE RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 

The Influence of Discovery and World Commerce. 

The age of the Protestant Reformation and the English 
revolution was also an age of vast changes in the com- 
merce and industry of Europe and in the life of the 
people. Huge fortunes v^ere made out of the trade 
opened by Columbus, da Gama, and Cortes. As most 
of the profits went to merchants and traders, the busi- 
ness classes grew in power. At length they more 
than rivaled in wealth and numbers the nobles and the 
clergy. Their profits, added to the gold and silver 
drawn from the mines of the New World, furnished 
the capital for business enterprises on a huge scale. 

The amount of money in the hands of the people 
was larger than ever before. Many a serf, by the sale 
of farm produce, was able to pay his landlord in cash 
and thus became a renter instead of a bondman. Some 
of the serfs, by careful saving, managed to buy their 
plots of land outright. So free peasants began to take 
the place of people bound to the soil. At the same time, 
the money In circulation helped business In the towns. 
The demand for manufactured goods Increased, and 
so did the number of artisans. Then began the drift 

261 



262 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



of the people to the towns in search of employment — 
a drift that has kept up steadily until our own day. 

Commerce, while making these changes within the 
nations, also became a powerful cause of wars among 
them. Princes had long fought over territory in 




From an old print, 

A Sugar Mill in the Tropics in the Eighteenth Century 



Europe. Now whole nations were to wage wars for 
territory and trade in all parts of the world for tea, 
sugar, coffee, and spices. 

The chief rivals in this new form of warfare were 
five in number, (i) The Portuguese. As we have seen. 




Chief Luropean Rivals 
263 



264 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

they led in the work of exploration. They opened the 
waterway to India and built up a rich trade there. 
They also founded the colony of Brazil in the New 
World. Portugal, however, lost her lead in 1580 when 
she was conquered by Spain. (2) The Spaniards. 
Through the exploits of her own seamen, Spain claimed 
nearly all of the New World and enjoyed most of 
the East Indian trade. By conquering Portugal, 
her power and possessions were greatly increased. 
(3) The Dutch. The people of The United Nether- 
lands were once subjects of the king of Spain ; but, as 
we have said, they finally revolted and became the 
rivals of Spain in trade. They sent their first expe- 
dition to India in 1595. They seized many of the 
trading posts formerly held in the East Indies by the 
Portuguese and they have managed to hold some of 
them to the present time. (4) The French. The king 
of France, not to be behind his neighbors, sent his 
sailors west and east and laid claim to much of North 
America and to parts of India. (5) The English. 
Though they came late upon the scene, the English 
soon surpassed all their rivals in the number of their 
merchants, sailors, and battleships. By building a 
mighty navy, England became mistress of the seas — 
the greatest sea power that the world had ever seen. 

The Commercial Triumph of England 

Victory over the Spanish. The English king had 
sent John Cabot across the Atlantic five years after 



THE RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 



265 



Columbus made his first voyage {First Book, pp. 26-29) j 
but nearly a hundred years passed before the English 
people began to trade and form colonies. 

When the English finally began to go abroad, they 
turned their attention to America, where the Spanish 




From an oia print 

A Spanish Mission in California, Built when Spain 
Ruled the Southwest 

were making huge fortunes. Defying the king of 
Spain, English sailors raided his towns in the West 
Indies and Central and South America. They at- 
tempted to plant colonies in parts of North America 
which he claimed. One of them. Sir Francis Drake, 
sailed all the way around the world (1577-80), looting 



266 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Spanish ships and trading posts as he went {First 
Book, pp. 38-44)- 

The king of Spain could not contain his wrath when 
he heard of Drake's exploits, and made ready for war. 
In 1588, he sent a powerful fleet of battleships, the 
Armada, to the English Channel to drive his English 
rivals from the sea. Instead of winning a great victory, 
the Spaniards suflPered a terrible defeat {First Book, 
pp. 45-47). Spanish sea power was badly crippled and 
the English no longer feared it. 

Still, Spain managed to hold most of her colonies 
until the nineteenth century. She held for a long time 
all of America from what is now the southern part of the 
United States down to the tip of South America, 
except Brazil, which was Portuguese. She owned 
Cuba and most of the West Indies. She also held 
the Philippines and other islands in the East {First 
Book, pp. 192, 372-375)- 

The Triumph of the English over the Dutch. The 
Dutch, as well as the English, profited from the down- 
fall of the Spanish Armada. They too were mortal 
enemies of the Spanish. They rapidly pushed forward 
their trade with India and made huge sums of money 
by carrying goods to England for sale. Seeing large 
profits going to their Dutch rivals, the English in 165 1 
passed a law against them, known as the Navigation 
Act. This law forbade foreigners to carry into Eng- 
land in their ships any goods except those which they 
had grown or made themselves. 



THE RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 



267 



Within twenty-five years, there were three wars 
between England and Holland. In the second of these 
contests, the English wrested from the Dutch their 
rich province of New Netherland in America. In 




From an old print 



A View of New Amsterdam in New Netherland 

1664, the old governor at New Amsterdam surrendered 
with a heavy heart to the British and lowered his flag. 
New Netherland became New York {First Book, 

pp. 65-73). 



268 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Still the Dutch were not daunted ; their fleet swept 
up the Thames and burned English war vessels even at 
the docks. The English paid back their foes for this 
defeat in a few years. They joined the French in a 
war on The Netherlands, which proved very costly to 
the Dutch in men and money. 

After this aifair, the Dutch could no longer hope to 
rival the naval power of England. Still they were 
permitted to retain many of their islands in the East 
Indies, including Java and Sumatra. They held, until 
1815, the Cape of Good Hope, which they had seized 
many years before. For a long time after the close 
of the third war, in 1674, the English and Dutch were 
at peace. Indeed, when the Prince of Orange be- 
came king of England, as William III (p. 253), the two 
nations united in wars on a common rival, the king of 
France. 

The Conflict between England and France in 
India and North America 

India in the Year 1600. When the English first 
began to trade in the East, India, a vast peninsula 
jutting out from southern Asia, was a great empire. 
The land was occupied by tens of millions of people 
mainly engaged in tilling the soil. There were many 
cities filled with wonderful temples and palaces. There 
were libraries stocked with books written by some 
of the world's wisest thinkers. Indian weavers made 
silks and linen finer than any European artisans could 



THE RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 



269 



make. Rich Indian merchants and princes had huge 
stores of gold, silver, and precious stones. In a word, 
India was a highly civilized country. The various 
peoples of India, however, differed in race and lan- 
guage. They were held together as one nation merely 
by the power of a 
strong emperor, the 
Great Mogul, as he 
was called by the 
English. 

The English and 
French Gain a Foot- 
hold. Ini6oo,some 
English merchants 
formed an East 
India Company to 
trade in the Far 
East. Soon they 
were sending fleet 
after fleet of mer- 
chant ships around 
the Cape of Good 
Hope to Indian 
ports. The new- 
comers were welcomed by the natives and were per- 
mitted to huild factories, or warehouses, in certain cities. 
The Great Mogul ordered his governors to "give them 
freedom answerable to their desires, to sell, buy, and 
transport into their country at their pleasure." The 




Taj Mahal, a Marvelous Tomb Built by 
AN Indian Emperor for His Wife 



270 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Dutch and the Portuguese, who were already in India, 
could do nothing but make the best of the situation. 

Likewise, when the French merchants came in 1669, 
they too were allowed to trade by the Mogul, and to 
build their warehouses as the other Europeans had done 
before them. By the opening of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, the merchants of the rival European nations 
were doing a thriving business in tea, silk, and other 
Indian goods. 

The Decline of the Mogul Empire. While the Mogul 
empire lasted, the European traders in India could go 
about safely and transact business without fear of rob- 
bers or tax gatherers. This peaceful state of affairs came 
to an end in 1707. In that year Arungzebe, the last 
of the great Indian emperors, died, leaving no son strong 
enough to hold together the vast heritage. Then the 
empire began to dissolve. Local princes, nawabs 
(nabobs), and rajahs, like feudal lords in Europe in 
the middle ages, declared their independence. At once, 
they began to struggle one with another to gain more 
territory. India became a scene of disorder and war- 
fare like Europe after the fall of Rome. 

The English Conquest of India. Both the English 
and the French in India were quick to see their chance. 
They soon learned that a powerful army could conquer 
all India, section by section. The French governor, 
Dupleix (pronounced Duplex), fortified the town of 
Pondicherry. He then organized bands of native sol- 
diers, called by the English sepoys, and, in 1741, began 



272 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



a career of conquest. About the same time an Eng- 
lish leader, Robert Clive, determined to gain all he 
could for the English East India Company. Whenever 
England and France were at war in Europe, and some- 
times when they were not, their agents in India fought 
for mastery over the crumbling Mogul empire. 




Keystone View Co., Inc. 

The Modern Railway Station at Bombay, India 

In the Seven Years' War (1756-63), the triumph of 
the English was quick and final. The French were 
defeated and driven out of India. They were allowed 
to keep a few trading centers, but they had to give 
up all hope of subduing India. 

That task was undertaken by the English. By a long 



THE RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 273 

and gradual process, they overcame one Indian prince 
after another until ^the whole Mogul empire passed 
under their control ; rather, we should say under the 
control of the English East India Company. Thus the 
agents of a trading company became the rulers of 
an empire. They ruled it until a terrible native revolt, 
known as the Sepoy Rebellion, broke out in 1857. Then 
the English government set aside the Company and 
took over the control of Indian affairs itself. About 
twenty years later, Queen Victoria, with pomp and 
ceremony, was proclaimed " Empress of India." 

The Triumph of the English in Canada. The contest 
in India was only one part of the mighty struggle 
between the EngHsh and the French over foreign 
possessions. They waged war upon each other on the 
banks of the St. Lawrence as well as on the banks of 
the Ganges. 

While the English were building their thirteen col- 
onies on the Atlantic coast, the French occupied Canada 
{First Book, pp. 83-92). From their base in Canada, 
French pioneers explored the Great Lakes, the Ohio 
Valley, and the Mississippi basin. They took posses- 
sion of the land and named it Louisiana in honor of 
the Grand Monarch, Louis XIV. They founded towns 
at Montreal and at New Orleans and built forts here 
and there in the vast wilderness between these two 
towns. They threatened the western borders of the 
English colonies, especially Virginia and Pennsyl- 
vania. 



160° 150° 140° 130° 120° H0°10(f 90° 80° 70° 60° 60° 40 




British and French Rivals in North America 

274 



THE RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 275 

It was on this border that the French and Indian 
War broke out. In 1755 occurred the defeat of Gen- 
eral Braddock, the EngHsh commander {First Book, 
pp. 92-101). From the forests of Pennsylvania the 
war spread to Europe, where it was known as the 
Seven Years' War. The English minister, William 
Pitt, bent every energy to bring ruin upon France, 
and was successful. 

At the end of the war in 1763, Canada and most of 
the territory east of the Mississippi passed under the 
British flag. Well could Pitt boast that England was 
victorious at once in America and in India, " the umpire 
of the continent, the mistress of the sea." As colo- 
nial powers, the Dutch were humbled, the Spanish 
reduced to a low rank, and the French crippled by 
the triumphant British on land and sea. Proudly could 
the English historian write: ''The Atlantic was dwin- 
dling into a mere strait within the British empire." 

The Balance of Power in Europe 

How the Idea Arose. The wars over trade and ter- 
ritory in all parts of the world were accompanied, as 
we have hinted, by wars in Europe itself. This 
was of course nothing new. From the downfall of the 
Roman empire onward, war had been the chief business 
of kings and princes. The trade with lands beyond the 
seas, discovered by the explorers, only gave new rea- 
sons for fighting. The rulers of Europe only found 
fresh excuses for pouncing upon their neighbors and 



2/6 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

seizing their territory. Wars became more deadly 
and more costly than ever, and there was always danger 
that some one country, like Rome of old, might become 
supreme over all Europe. 

In this state of aflPairs, diplomats invented a scheme 
known as " the balance of power." It was their idea 
to form alliances among nations in such a way as to 
prevent any one of them from becoming the master 
of all Europe. It was cold-blooded business. Kings 
made alliances and broke them with as much ease as 
they changed their clothes. They embraced a brother 
king one year and waged war on him the following year, 
if he became too powerful. Soldiers fought under one 
flag one year and under another flag the next year — 
with equal zeal. Such was the chief diplomatic interest 
of England, Spain, France, Holland, and Austria for 
nearly three centuries. In the eighteenth century two 
new powers came upon the scene : Prussia, under the 
Hohenzollerns ; and Russia, under the Romanoffs. 

England and the Balance of Power. In this game, 
England played a peculiar part. English kings had 
once fought in France with a hope of winning French 
territory, but they had long ago given up that project. 
Still, England had a keen interest in the balance of 
power in Europe. In the first place, she knew that 
if any king became supreme on the continent, he 
would soon attempt to cross the Channel and invade 
her island home. In the second place, England was 
often at war with Spain, Holland, and France over 



FHE RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 



277 



foreign trade and territories. Thus she was deeply 
concerned in all quarrels that promised to increase 
her possessions in India or North America or to 
enlarge her trade at the expense of her rivals. To 
trace the history of the balance of power, therefore, 




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Western Europe in the Seventeenth Century 

we must go over in another way the period which we 
have just treated. 

The Grand Alliance of 1689 against France. After 
the decline of Spain and Holland, England's greatest 



2/8 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

rival in Europe, as we have seen, was France. Under 
an ambitious and warlike king, Louis XIV (1643-1715), 
France sought to become a world power. Besides 
starting colonies in various parts of the world, Louis 
tried to annex some of the land now included in 
Belgium. That brought him into a conflict with the 
Spanish king, to whom the territory coveted by Louis 
then belonged. Louis was also bent upon adding to 
France lands to the east as far as the Rhine River. 
That aroused the ire of several German princes and 
particularly of the ruler of Austria. 

The king of England, William III, hearing about 
Louis' plans, set to work to defeat them. He 
brought Holland, Spain, and Austria into a com- 
bination against France. England commanded the 
sea and sent troops to the continent to aid her allies 
in attacking France on the landward side. The proud 
Louis, after eight years of fighting, was forced to make 
a humiliating peace. 

The Grand Alliance of 170 1 against France and Spain. 
It was not long, however, before a new cause of war 
arose. In 1700, the childless king of Spain died, leav- 
ing his immense realms in the Old World and the New 
to a grandson of Louis XIV. Thus both France and 
Spain were in the hands of one royal family. Both 
were European powers of high rank. Both held 
great domains in the New World. Both were rivals 
of Great Britain for trade in the Far East and the 
Far West. 



THE RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 279 

The peril to the English empire was undoubtedly 
great, and English statesmen were quick to scent the 
danger. The peril was equally great for the Dutch 
and the Austrians. So by skillful management William 
III was able to unite England, Holland, and Austria 
in an alliance against France and Spain in a long 
war that broke out in 1701 and lasted until 1713. 
This conflict was known as the War of the Spanish 
Succession. 

When peace came at last, England was amply 
rewarded. The fear that Spain and Spanish America 
might be united with France had been the chief reason 
for the war. That fear was now removed. It was agreed 
that the crowns of Spain and France should never be 
united. In addition England obtained from France 
Newfoundland, Acadia, and Hudson's Bay in America. 
She wrested from Spain Gibraltar, the fortress that 
guards the entrance to the Mediterranean, and Minorca, 
an island not far away. 

England and Prussia against France, Austria, and 
Spain. Distracted Europe was not to enjoy peace 
very long. In 1740, Frederick the Great, the king of 
Prussia, and Louis XV, the king of France, united 
in a war to despoil Austria. They had started on the 
enterprise when England took a hand in the fray 
also. She furnished money to hard-pressed Austria 
and gave military assistance. This war, too, spread 
to America, where it was known as King George's 
War. 



28o OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Peace came in 1748, but lasted only for a few years. 
Seven years later the French and English came to blows 
in the western part of Pennsylvania (p. 275). There 
the pioneers of the two nations met in deadly combat. 
War then flamed up in two hemispheres. As France now 
won Austria over to her side, England arranged a new 
balance of power. She united with Prussia against 
her old ally, Austria, and her ancient enemy, France. 
Troops were sent to aid Frederick the Great, the 
Prussian king, and English gold was poured into his 
treasury. 

In America, General Wolfe astounded Europe by 
his brilliant conquest of Quebec {First Book, pp. 98- 
loi). In India, Robert Clive achieved a victory no 
less important at the battle of Plassey, in which he 
overwhelmed the French and their Indian allies. '' We 
are forced to ask every morning what victory there is 
for fear of missing one," exclaimed a witty English- 
man as the news of one triumph after another poured 
into London. 

In the end, England's arms were victorious every- 
where. France was impoverished and weakened in 
Europe. She was forced, as we have seen, to give 
up her colonies in North America as well as in 
India. Canada became English. The name of William 
Pitt, the great English minister who brought Eng- 
land to such a pitch of power, was known and feared 
around the world. Even the former French strong- 
hold at Fort Duquesne, in western Pennsylvania, 



THE RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 281 




282 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

was christened Pittsburgh in his honor. Louisiana, 
beyond the Mississippi, was handed over to Spain. 
Prussia became now a strong miUtary country 
and was in time to become master of all the German 
states. 

The American Colonies, France, Holland, and Spain 
against England. It was to France, smarting under the 
ruinous defeat of the Seven Years' War, that the 
American revolutionists turned for help in 1776 {First 
Book, pp. 136-142). French statesmen saw that the 
time had come to call the New World into the Euro- 
pean balance of power. There were many Frenchmen 
w^ho sympathized with American ideas ; but the king 
of France did not. He saw in the possibility of Amer- 
ican independence merely a check on the immense power 
which England had won in the world. He at first aided 
the Americans secretly with money and arms. In 1778 
he made a treaty of alliance with them. Then French 
battleships and military forces were sent to help the 
American colonies in their struggle against Great 
Britain. 

Spain and The Netherlands, old commercial rivals, 
also joined in the war on England. 

The outcome of this new balance of power was the 
defeat of England and the independence of America. 
Henceforward, the diplomats of Europe, in their 
schemes for war and empire, had to reckon with a new 
republic across the Atlantic. In Benjamin Franklin 
{First Book, pp. 136-143), the American minister who 



THE RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 



283 




284 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

brought about the alliance with France, they had found 
a supreme master of their art. 

England's Combinations against France (1793-1815). 

England and France were at peace only for a short 
time after the American War for Independence. 
In 1793, they began a fresh series of wars that 
lasted, except for a short break, until 18 15. When 
this new series of conflicts opened, the French 
had begun their great revolution (below, pp. 299- 
309). They had executed the king and set up a 
republic. 

George III and the English ruling classes were dread- 
fully frightened at this outbreak so near at hand, in 
the same way that the French king had been alarmed 
at the English revolution a hundred years before 
(p. 257). When the French occupied Belgium, they 
were still more frightened. Then the old commercial 
and colonial jealousy flamed up again. England gave 
money to Holland and Prussia and formed a combi- 
nation against France. 

At this turn in events, a great military commander. 
Napoleon Bonaparte, rose to the head of affairs in 
France (below, p. 310). For a long time he was vic- 
torious on land over all combinations formed against 
him. On the sea, however, the British beat him in 
every battle. At last, in 18 15, Napoleon, with all 
Europe against him, was overthrown at the battle of 
Waterloo. The credit for the triumph over Napoleon 
seems about equally divided between the English and 



THE RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 



285 



the Prussians, who fought side by side against the 
French. 

In the Napoleonic wars, as in the wars of the 
preceding century, England's gains were colonial. 
She took the Cape of Good Hope, which became 
the basis of her empire in South Africa. She ob- 




From an uid print 

Cape Town Transferred to the British during the Napoleonic Wars 

tained certain French islands in the West Indies, 
and she added the island of Ceylon to her growing 
empire in India. Not until a hundred years later, 
at the outbreak of the World War in 1914, was 
England again seriously threatened by any continental 
power. 



286 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Questions and Exercises 

L I. From a study of the first two paragraphs of this chapter, 
discuss two important ways in which the exploration and settle- 
ment of the Americas changed the life of European peoples. 
2. What is meant by the word "rivals"? Locate on the map 
facing p. 436 the five nations that were rivals for the commerce of 
the world during the period covered by this chapter. Can you 
think of any reasons that will explain why such countries as Italy, 
Greece, Germany, and Russia were not so much interested in world 
commerce as were these five nations.? 3. Locate on the map 
the principal parts of the world with which the Spanish early car- 
ried on commerce ; the Dutch ; the French. 

IL I. Point out on the map the extent of the Spanish pos- 
sessions in the Americas during this period. Locate Spain's 
principal possessions in the Far East. 2. Why is the name 
of Sir Francis Drake remembered.? 3. The English victory 
over the Spanish Armada is considered one of the most important 
events in English history. Why .? 4. How did the English 
Navigation Act aid English shipowners .? 5. In what way did 
the struggle between the English and the Dutch influence American 
history .? 6. Locate the Dutch possessions in the Far East on 
the map on p. 271. 

III. I. How was India reached from Europe before the Euro- 
peans learned how to sail their ships around Africa .? 2. Recall 
why great civilizations grew up in the Nile and Euphrates valleys. 
Are there similar reasons that will explain why India was a favor- 
able place for the development of a civilized people .? 3. How were 
the people of India held together at the time when the Europeans 
opened an extensive sea trade with them J In what way was the 
history of India thereafter like the history of Rome.? 4. *' Both the 
English and the French in India were quick to see their chance." 
Explain this statement and tell what each hoped to gain by conquer- 
ing India. About how long had the English been interested in India 



THE RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 287 

before they secured complete control of the country ? In what 
important way does the present control of India by the English 
differ from their control in the early days ? 5. The English 
people were also interested in North America. Did this interest 
differ in any respect from their interest in India ? If so, explain. 
6. Point out the extent of the French and English possessions 
in North America just before the Seven Years' War. 7. What 
were the chief interests of the French in making settlements in 
North America ? How did these differ from the interests of the 
English ^ 

IV. I. What is meant by an "alliance" among nations.'' 
How would such alliances help to prevent any one nation or king 
from becoming master of all the rest.? Why are alliances not 
always successful in doing this .? 2. Why was England interested 
in keeping any one nation on the continent of Europe from becom- 
ing supreme.? 3. Locate on the map facing p. 436 the lands 
that Louis XIV wished to add to France. Locate the countries 
that made an alliance against him. Why was the war that 
followed, which led to fighting between the English and French in 
America, known to the English colonists as King William's War ^ 

4. Spain was against France in the war just referred to; how did 
she come to be allied with France in the next great war .? Locate 
the new possessions that England gained in this war. Find out 
what this war was called by the English colonists in America. 

5. How many years elapsed between the War of the Spanish 
Succession and King George's War .? What nations were allied 
in the latter war .? 6. How many years passed between the 
close of King George's War and the opening of the Seven Years' 
War .? The last-named war differed from the earlier wars by 
starting in America. How did it start .? Locate the European 
nations that later took part in it and tell which were in alliance 
with the English and which with the French. 7. What Euro- 
pean country that we have heard very little about up to this time 
now becomes important ? 8. What were the principal results 



288 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

of the Seven Years' War for England ? For our country ? For 
France ? 9. What was the first alliance entered into by the 
United States ? In what Important way did this Influence the 
"balance of power" In Europe? 10. With what countries did 
England make an alliance In order to crush Napoleon ? 

Geographical Studies 

1. Study the map of Asia In your textbook In geography. 
What mountains bound India on the north ? Perhaps you can 
find some facts about these great mountains that will explain why 
they have been a real protection to India. 

2. One of the chief purposes of your study of geography Is to en- 
able you to recognize and to locate In your " mind's eye " the Impor- 
tant places which you encounter In your reading. This chapter con- 
tains many such names, but no more than you would find on the 
front page of an ordinary newspaper. 

Hold a class contest to find out who can put the largest number 
of place-names In this chapter in the proper column. The follow- 
ing will be the headings of the columns : Hemispheres ; Conti- 
nents ; Oceans ; Archipelagoes ; Islands ; Lakes ; Rivers ; Straits ; 
Bays ; States ; Modern Countries ; Former Countries ; Cities of 
General Importance; Cities Mentioned for Historical Importance. 
The following places, listed here alphabetically, are all mentioned 
in this chapter and should be classified in this way : Acadia, Asia, 
Atlantic, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Central America, 
Ceylon, Cuba, East Indies, England, English Channel, Europe, 
Fort Duquesne, France, Ganges, Gibraltar, Good Hope, Great 
Lakes, Holland, Hudson ('s) Bay, India, Java, Louisiana, Minorca, 
Mississippi, Montreal, Newfoundland, New Netherland, New 
Orleans, New World, New York, North America, Ohio, Old World, 
Pennsylvania, Philippines, Pittsburgh, Plassey, Pondlcherry, 
Portugal, Prussia, Quebec, Rhine, Russia, South Africa, South 
America, Spain, St. Lawrence, Sumatra, Thames, Virginia, Wa- 
terloo, West Indies. 



THE RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 289 

3. Hold another class contest to see who can locate correctly the 
largest number of these places on an outline map of the world. 

Suggestions for Reading 

Creighton — Stories from English History, xlvlli-xlix. 
Dale — Landmarks of British History, x, xi. 
Marshall — A History of France, IvI, Ivii. 
O'Neill — The Story of the World, xxxvili-xlli. 
Tappan — Hero Stories of France, xlli-xxl. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

While English sailors and soldiers were beating the 
forces of the French king on sea and land, English 
ideas were spreading among his subjects and helping 
to destroy his power at home. Moreover, his wars — 
including his aid to the United States in the War for 
Independence — added to his debts and increased the 
taxes laid upon his subjects. 

As the burdens grew heavier, the French people 
listened more eagerly to writers who told them how, in 
England, the king could not collect taxes without the 
consent of Parliament. The influence of the English 
revolution was made even greater by the American 
revolution. The Americans had thrown off the rule of 
the king altogether and had set up their own plan of 
government. French soldiers like Lafayette had helped 
in the American war for independence and had carried 
back to France stories of what they had seen and heard 
in the New World. 

Thus many things prepared the way for a revolution 

in France like that which had occurred in England a 

hundred years before. When the upheaval came. 

Frenchmen proclaimed the democratic ideas which the 

290 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 



291 



Americans had recently set forth in their Declaration of 
Independence. 

The Old Order in France 

The General Situation in Europe. On the eve of 

the French Revolution, nearly all the people on the 
continent of Europe were ruled by absolute monarchs. 
The Bourbons in France and Spain, the Hohenzollerns 




From an old print 
The Gallery of the Royal Palace at Fontainebleau (France) 

in Prussia, the Hapsburgs in Austria, and the Romanoffs 
in Russia could all boast of almost unlimited power. 
The minor princes of Germany and Italy were no less 
supreme in their tiny realms. In only a few places, 
like Switzerland, Holland, and Scandinavia, did the 



292 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

people have any share in their own government, as they 
had in England and in the United States. Everywhere 
else on the continent the masses were subjects and 
most of them were still serfs. Everywhere feudal land- 
lords and the clergy enjoyed a great deal of the power 
which had been theirs in the middle ages. 

In the magnificence of the king, the splendor of his 
court, and the authority of the clergy, France stood out 
above all other monarchies of Europe. She was the 
model and envy of all other kingdoms. Treaties among 
nations were written in the French language. French 
manners, French styles, and French plays became 
fashionable among society people everywhere from 
Madrid to St. Petersburg. 

The French King. The powers of the French 
king seemed boundless — even greater by far than 
those of the English king had been before the Puritan 
revolution of the seventeenth century. His word was 
law. Any decree which he issued had to be obeyed. 
He could lay taxes at will without asking the consent 
of the taxpayers. He could spend the money as he 
pleased. By his mere signature on a piece of paper, 
he could put anyone in prison without trial and keep 
him there as long as he wished. He could make alli- 
ances with other kings and princes, either secretly or 
openly, and thus involve his country in all kinds of 
troubles. He could declare war or make peace at 
will. He appointed and removed all high officers 
and could compel them to carry out his wishes. 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 



293 




294 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

As may be imagined, the expenses of the king were 
enormous. In addition to the ordinary costs of govern- 
ment, there were the heavy charges for wars entered 
into for glory or the conquest of new territory. The 
king kept up many costly mansions and had armies of 
servants. The royal palace at Versailles alone is 
said to have cost more than fifty million dollars. The 
upkeep of the spacious buildings and gardens was a 
drain on his treasury. The king also had about him 
hundreds of courtiers who lived upon his bounty and 
encouraged him in wasting money. To meet his bills, 
the king merely issued orders on the treasury. When 
the treasury was empty, he borrowed. At no time 
did he publish any statement showing what his receipts 
and expenditures had been. The finances of his king- 
dom he deemed a matter of no concern to the taxpayers. 

Indeed the king's subjects had been well schooled 
to accept this system without grumbling. It was 
still a regular saying in Europe that '' the king can do 
no wrong." In Protestant Prussia and in Catholic 
France alike, the people were taught the belief that the 
king ruled by the favor and will of God. This idea 
of divine right, which had once been proclaimed by 
English kings, was thus summed up by a celebrated 
French bishop : '' Rulers act as the ministers of God 
and as his lieutenants on earth. . . . Should God 
withdraw his hand, the earth would fall to pieces ; 
should the king's authority cease in the realm, all would 
be confusion. . . . The royal power is absolute. . . . 



I 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 295 

The will of the people is included in his." Wicked 
kings were accountable to God for their misdeeds, 
but they were to be obeyed by their subjects. 

The Nobility. The French king had stanch friends 
among his nobles, a class of great landlords. Each 
noble owned an estate, sometimes of thousands of 
acres, tilled by tenants or by serfs. His birth and rank 
set him off from the mass of mankind. The noble- 
men, too, had many special rights. They escaped all 
the heavy taxes. They held all the high and important 
offices in the army and in the government. They 
crowded about the king's court and got favors from him. 
They spent the rents collected from their estates in 
lavish entertainments. They were happy when the 
king let them render him the meanest service ; at the 
same time, they looked down upon merchants and 
peasants as inferior beings. 

The Clergy. Like the nobility, the French clergy 
formed a distinct class. They were more powerful 
than the clergy in England. This was because the 
Protestant revolt had been stifled in France and 
there were no strong Protestant sects to dispute their 
authority. The priests were set apart for spiritual 
duties. Their religious garb marked them off from 
the mass of the people. i 

Though the village priest was usually very poor, many 
of the monasteries and the higher clergy — especially the 
bishops and archbishops — were very rich. About one 
fourth of the land of France belonged to the Church. 



296 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

The clergy were exempt from taxes, but they had 
to give large sums for the support of the poor and the 
sick. They had control of all education. They chose 
the subjects to be taught and were themselves the 
teachers. They could suppress books which they did 
n'ot approve. They could collect taxes, or tithes^ for 
their own support, and punish people who violated the 
laws of the Church. They were powerful also as 
advisers of the king and as leaders of opinion. 

The Third Estate. All the rest of the French people 
were known as the third estate, or third class. The ma- 
jority of people everywhere in Europe were peasants 
and lived by tilling the soil. Unlike the agricultural 
laborers in England, many of them in France were still 
serfs. In Prussia, Austria, and Russia, serfdom was 
about the same as it had been in the middle ages. The 
serf was not a slave ; that is, his master could not sell 
him at the market. But he was still bound to the soil. 

The leaders in the third estate were merchants, 
manufacturers, and lawyers, rather than peasants or 
artisans. With the growth of world trade in the 
eighteenth century, the French merchant class had 
grown in numbers and wealth. Their warehouses in 
India and China, their fleets and their long lines of 
wharves and docks bore witness to their energy and 
power. 

The merchants felt that they were the equals of 
anyone, but they had to pay heavy taxes and enjoyed 
no favors at the king's court. It is not surprising that 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 297 

they did not like the inferior position in which they 
were placed. They had to obey royal laws, yet they 
were denied all voice in making them. In the govern- 
ment of France, the richest merchants, like the humblest 
peasant or artisan, had no rights. In opposing absolute 
authority of the king, therefore, all these people had a 
common interest. 

Newspapers, Books, and Public Opinion. The lot of 
most editors and writers in those old days was not 
a happy one. If they praised the clergy and flattered 
the king, they were rewarded with money and positions ; 
but it was a blind person who could not see abuses that 
cried aloud for remedy. So a host of writers began to 
call for reform. Some complained about the high- 
handed actions of royal officers, others about heavy 
taxes, and others about the special privileges of the 
clergy and the nobility. 

The critics, however, had a hard time. Some of 
their books were seized by royal officers and others 
were burned by the hangman. Many a brilliant writer 
was fined or shut up in prison. Among those punished 
were some of the ablest men of France. One of them 
wrote in favor of toleration for all religious faiths ; his 
book was declared to be " seditious " and was burned. 
Another writer, Voltaire, was imprisoned twelve months' 
on the charge that he had written a criticism of the 
king, Louis XIV. An abbot who wrote an amusing 
story about a princess was promptly ordered to jail. 

As prisons, fines, and exile did not stop criticism, 



298 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

stronger measures were taken. In 1764 the French 
king decreed that no book should be published that 
dealt with political questions. A few years later, the 
government threatened with death any writer who ex- 
cited the public mind, or attacked religion, or said any- 
thing about royal finance. These heavy penalties also 
failed to crush the critics. Thereupon a high officer of 
the king proposed that no books should be printed ex- 
cept on a press owned by the government and managed 
by royal agents. This last plan was not carried out. 
A revolution, which overthrew the entire system, pre- 
vented it. 

The People Revolt 

The Opening Scenes. When Louis XVI came to 
the throne of France in 1774, he found himself an 
absolute monarch, but heavily in debt. His grand- 
father had spent huge sums in the French and Indian 
War, and had lived extravagantly besides. The new 
king thought for a while that he would undertake 
reforms. In this he was unsuccessful. Every time he 
cut off the salary of a nobleman or reduced a pension a 
great cry went up from the victim. It seemed easier 
to drift along in the old reckless way, so Louis chose 
that course. Moreover, as we have seen, he added to 
his debts by joining with the Americans in 1778 in 
their war against England {First Book, pp. 136-142). 
In a few years Louis XVFs treasury was empty and he 
was practically bankrupt. Then he called upon; the 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 299 

nobles and the clergy for help, only to meet with a 
flat refusal. This was in 1787, the year that the Con- 
stitution of the United States was drafted at Phila- 
delphia. 

The Estates General. Being at his wits' end for 
money, the king was forced to call upon the nation 
in 1789. So he summoned a grand national parliament 
representing the three "estates" — the clergy, the nobil- 
ity, and the Third Estate. This assembly, known as the 
Estates General, was the first of the kind France had seen 
for more than a hundred years. 

The representatives of the Third Estate came in a 
very serious mood. They resented the way in which 
the king and his ministers had ruled — the waste of 
money ; the injury to business ; the persecution ; and 
the indifference to the welfare of the French people. 
They debated their grievances with much heat. They 
invited the clergy and the nobles to sit and vote with 
them instead of forming two separate houses. When 
the clergy and the nobles refused, the Third Estate, 
in a revolutionary outburst, declared itself to be " the 
National Assembly." It solemnly vowed that it would 
not dissolve until it had drawn up a constitution for 
France. The clergy and nobility found themselves face 
to face with a new ruler, the French nation, speaking 
through its representatives. 

The Peaceful Revolution. It was in the spring of 
the very year that George Washington was inaugurated 
first President of the United States {First Book, pp. 



300 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



154-155) that the French nation set out upon a road 

of reform that led to revolution. On July 14, 1789, | 




ten days after the Americans celebrated their thirteenth 
anniversary of independence, the people of Paris at- 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 301 

tacked the Bastille, an old royal prison, and destroyed 
it. In memory of this event, the 14th of July has 
become the chief national holiday of France. 

For two years the French National Assembly issued 
decrees of reform. It abolished the dues owed by serfs 
to their lords. It swept away the special rights and 
privileges of the nobility. Everywhere the serfs and 
peasants became free. It issued a Declaration of the 
Rights of Man. It took away from the king the right 
to make laws, lay taxes, or imprison at will. It 
declared in favor of religious toleration and freedom of 
press and speech. The Assembly decreed that the 
property of the Church should belong to the nation, 
and provided that the clergy should be paid from 
public funds. It drew up a constitution for France. 
It did not overthrow the king, but it did provide that 
laws were to be made and taxes voted by a legislature. 
This legislature was to be elected by all the men who 
paid a certain amount of taxes. Thus, in two years, 
the old order was swept away in France. Very little 
blood had been shed. The French nation was attempt- 
ing to govern itself and the king accepted the reforms. 

Americans Hail the New Day in France. The 
reforms of the National Assembly, especially the new 
French constitution, were greeted with general applause 
in the United States. '' Liberty will have another 
feather in her cap," wrote a Boston editor. ^' In no 
part of the globe," declared John Marshall of Virginia, 
" was this revolution hailed with more joy than in 



302 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

America." The main key of the old Bastille was sent 
to George Washington as a memento and accepted 
by him as " a token of the victory gained by liberty." 

France Slipping into Disorder. In the midst of 
the rejoicing, however, there were omens of trouble. 
French nobles who had lost their privileges fled across 
the Rhine. There they tried to get help in a plan to 
invade France, ^^ free the king," and restore the old 
system. Louis himself showed his bad faith by at- 
tempting to escape from his realm. When he was 
captured and brought back, the people were in an angry 
mood. 

Some agitators began boldly to demand a republic. 
Hundreds of non-taxpayers in Paris assembled on a 
great drill ground (Champs de Mars) to petition for the 
right to vote. They came to blows with the soldiers 
and many of them were killed. All France was wildly 
excited. 

The kings of Austria and Prussia announced that 
they were ready to advance with their armies and re- 
store Louis to his old rights as a brother sovereign. 
France answered by a declaration of war on Austria 
and was defeated in the first battles. Then Prussia 
joined Austria and set her armies in motion. The 
French nation was in extreme danger of an armed in- 
vasion. In the midst of the excitement, a mob broke 
into the king's palace, forced him to put on a red liberty 
cap, and compelled him to drink to the health of the 
people. Volunteers from all parts of France came pour- 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 



303 



iiig in to defend their country. One little band of 
them from Marseilles came marching along singing a 
stirring hymn — the Marseillaise — which became the 
hymn of the revo- 
lution and later of 
the republic. 

The Reign of 
Terror. In this 
hour of peril, a na- 
tional convention 
was elected. Mod- 
erate men who 
favored the king 
were brushed aside 
by radical repub- 
licans, known as 
Jacobins. In Sep- 
tember, 1792, the 
convention abol- 
ished the monarchy 
and announced the 
first French Re- 
public. Within a 
few months, it 
tried the king, condemned him to death, and executed 
him. In a short time, too, the queen, Marie Antoinette, 
was sent to the scaffold. The English king, George III, 
went into mourning. All England, forgetting the ex- 
ecution of its own king, Charles I, long before, was 




trom an old print 

The King of France Seized by a Mob 



304 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



alarmed. In February, 1793, France and England were 
at war. As the revolution was in grave danger of being 
crushed by outside enemies and by the factions within 
France, the convention put all power into the hands of 
a committee known as the Committee of Public Safety. 
For more than two years, France was governed by 




From an old 'print 



The Trial of Louis XVI 



a small minority of men who ruled with an iron hand. 
This period is called the Reign of Terror. Hundreds of 
royalists were executed with scarcely the semblance of 
a trial. Moderate men, who hated bloodshed and 
were not zealous enough for the revolution, were exiled 
or sent to the scaffold. Uprisings of the peasants 
against the republic were stamped out. The clergy, 
who refused to accept the new order, were sternly pun- 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 305 

ished. Powerful men rose to leadership in swift suc- 
cession, each more radical than the man before him. 
Marat, Danton, and Robespierre each, in turn, led in 
the revolution and then perished on the scaffold or at 
the hands of an assassin. 

Meanwhile, war was going on with all Europe. In 
spite of this, more extreme reforms were being under- 
taken and a new constitution was being drafted. The 
mass of Frenchmen, who had been denied the right to 
vote by the first constitution of 1791, were given this 
right — a thing that seemed very dangerous at that 
time. 

Reaction against Terror. Finally, the country be- 
came sick of bloodshed and disorder. A new govern- 
ment was established in 1795. I^ ^^^ republican in 
form. It was arranged that there should be a parlia- 
ment consisting of two houses and an executive 
department composed of five men called the Directory. 
For four years (1795-99) France was governed under 
this plan. 

The Reign of Terror was over, but the country was 
still at war. Victory on the battlefield was taking the 
place of defeat, however, and the kings of Europe were 
frightened. With republican armies launched on a 
career of conquest in Europe, all the monarchs and 
nobles and clergy trembled for their own safety. They 
were to have no peace for twenty years. 

American Opinion on the French Revolution. Dur- 
ing these stirring years in France, a great discussion 



3o6 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

of the situation was taking place in the United States. 
The Americans also were being agitated by politics 
and were dividing into two parties. The Federalists 
were being formed under the leadership of Alexander 
Hamilton and the Republicans under Thomas Jefferson 
{First Book, pp. 154-160). 

Hamilton and his followers did not have great faith 
in popular government. Few of the Federalists be- 
lieved in giving the vote to men who owned no prop- 
erty, as the French radicals had urged. Indeed, the 
Federalists looked with real alarm upon the spread 
of French democratic ideas. They said that the rad- 
icals were to blame for all the disorders in France, and 
they denounced the Jacobins as " anarchists " and 
" criminals." 

The followers of Jefferson, on the other hand, said 
that, on the whole, the French republicans were trying 
to do the right thing. They were sorry about the 
reign of terror, but they laid the blame rather on the 
king's friends and the nobles who wanted to overthrow 
the revolution and restore the old order. The Jeffer- 
sonians admitted that many terrible things had been 
done by the revolutionists, but they said that most 
of them had been necessary in the interest of the 
people. They pointed to the misdeeds of Louis XVI 
and asserted that the king and his friends had brought 
all the trouble on themselves. So Jefferson's followers 
formed " Democratic " societies and held banquets 
in honor of the French Republic. They said that the 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 307 

kings of England, Austria, and Prussia were tyrants 
waging war on republican France in order to restore 
the monarchy. 

The United States Involved. While the people 
debated theories of government, the American govern- 
ment had practical problems to face. France, at war 
with England, called upon President Washington for 
aid. France claimed that the United States was bound 
to help her under the terms of the treaty of 1778. 
Many American citizens at the same time clamored 
for war against England. President Washington, 
unmoved by all the uproar, declared that the United 
States would remain neutral. When the French 
minister to the United States went about making 
speeches in this country to secure aid for France, Pres- 
ident Washington asked the French government to 
order him home. Under the rules of war both England 
and France began to search and seize our ships and 
goods on the high seas. 

Very soon France and the United States were on 
the verge of war. President Adams, who followed 
Washington, sent a special mission to Paris seeking 
peace. It was not received with courtesy, and secret 
demands were made upon It for (i) apologies for past 
conduct and (2) money In the form of bribes. President 
Adams then told Congress about these outrageous 
demands, naming the Frenchmen who made them 
simply as " Mr. X, Mr. Y, and Mr. Z." 

This aroused the whole country. Even Jefferson's^^ 



3o8 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

party turned against France. In fact, war on France 
actually started at sea, though it did not last long. 
A peace was soon patched up. 

About the same time, the Federalists tried to shut 
out all further French influence by passing two severe 
laws, known as the Alien and Sedition Ads. The first 
of these laws authorized the president to expel any 
alien agitator from this country ; the second laid 
penalties on those who criticized the government of 
the United States. These laws were bitterly attacked 
by the party of Jefferson and became the subject of 
violent dispute {First Book., pp. 159-160). 

The French Revolution and European Opinion. 
England had alarmed the world by her revolution a 
hundred years before. Now it was the turn of France 
to terrify governments everywhere. In England, it 
is true, a few leaders rejoiced during the first stages 
of the French revolution and declared that England 
needed similar reforms ; that her earlier revolutions 
had not been democratic enough. Most Englishmen, 
however, were up in arms against everything French 
and denounced as '' Jacobin " anyone who proposed 
the slightest change in the English government. One 
of them, Edmund Burke, who had once handsomely 
championed the cause of the Americans {First Book., 
pp. 116-118), savagely attacked the French and de- 
manded a union of kings to make war on them. 

King George's officers seized and threw into prison 
citizens who declared that the vote should be given to 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 



309 



every Englishman whether he owned any property 
or not. " The right of universal suffrage, the subjects 
of this country never enjoyed," said one of the king's 
judges, '' and were they to enjoy it, they would not 
long enjoy either liberty or a free constitution." Men 
who expressed ap- 
proval of French 
ideas, even pri- 
vately, were liable 
to be fined and im- 
prisoned. 

In Austria, Prus- 
sia, and Spain, as 
well as in England, 
the ruling classes 
were thoroughly 
alarmed. They 
feared that revolu- 
tionary ideas about 
liberty, democ- 
racy, and republics 
would upset every 
throne and destroy 
the rights of the 
nobility and the clergy. French popular leaders talked 
as if the millennium had come. Kings and nobles, 
on the other hand, thought the world was crumbling 
into ruin. 




Napoleon I, Emperor of the French 



310 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

The Napoleonic Wars 

The Remarkable Career of Bonaparte. Among the 
officers in the French army at the outbreak of the 
revolution was a young man destined to become the 
master of France and nearly all Europe. His name was 
Napoleon Bonaparte. He was only twenty-three years 
old when Louis XVI was executed in 1793, but in the 
war that soon followed he proved that he was an able 
artillery officer. In 1795 he endeared himself to the 
French government by using his guns on a crowd of 
citizens bent on overturning it. 

The next year, Bonaparte was chosen commander 
of the French army sent against the Austrians in Italy. 
In one battle after another, often against great odds, 
Bonaparte defeated the enemy and made himself mas- 
ter of all northern Italy. He astounded the world by 
his brilliant exploits. 

Having beaten Austria, he decided to strike England 
by attacking Egypt. In this way he threatened Eng- 
lish trade in the Mediterranean. He also hinted that 
he would go on until he destroyed English rule in India. 
Bonaparte was readily victorious over the Turks in 
Egypt ; but his fleet was destroyed by the English com- 
mander. Nelson, in the famous battle of the Nile in 1798. 

Bonaparte as Consul and Emperor. As things were 
not promising in Egypt, Bonaparte hurried back to 
France. In 1799, with the aid of soldiers, he over- 
threw the Directory. Thereupon he made himself 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 



311 



head of the government as First Consul and reduced 
the power of the parliament to a shadow. With an 
iron hand, like Oliver Cromwell, he put down all oppo- 
sition — that of royalists and radicals alike. He said 
that France needed " order," and he established order 




Napoleon's Carriage 

by the sword. He said that France loved " glory," so 
by his conquering armies he gave her glory. 

At the same time, he steadily increased his own power. 
In 1802 he was made consul for life instead of a term 
of years. Two years later, he was made Emperor ot 
the French, and crowned himself with great ceremony 




312 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 313 

In the beautiful cathedral of Notre Dame, with the 
pope looking on. He created a new court on the model 
of Louis XVFs and founded a new nobility. He 
strictly censored books and newspapers. He ordered 
editors not to print news ^' disagreeable to France." 
He required teachers in the schools to praise his name 
and his deeds and to make pupils do the same. France 
had a new despotism, more thoroughgoing than the 
despotism of the Bourbon kings had been. 

Napoleon's Conquests. '' What the French want," 
Napoleon declared, " is glory. . . . The Nation must 
have a head rendered illustrious by glory and not by 
theories of government." In keeping with this idea. 
Napoleon was at war, save for a few months, during 
his entire rule. He found France at war in 1793, 
and he kept it up until 18 15 with only one short 
breathing spell. By blows swift and terrible he over- 
came the armies of all nations massed against him. 

By 1 8 10, Napoleon was the master of Europe. He 
was Emperor of the French, King of Italy, and '' Pro- 
tector " of a league of German states. The borders 
of France had been extended to the Rhine and in- 
cluded what is now Belgium and Holland. His brother 
had been placed on the throne of Spain, and his 
brother-in-law on that of Naples. Only on the sea was 
he baffled. There England's navy reigned supreme. 
Indeed we may look upon the Napoleonic wars as a 
part of the old commercial struggle between England 
and France (p. 268). 



314 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Napoleon's DownfalL When, in 1812, Napoleon 
at last tried to conquer Russia, he made a fatal mis- 
take. He could not fight against winter and famine. 
So he beat a hasty retreat. All the leading countries 
then turned against him. He was defeated at Leipzig 
in 1 813. The next year he was sent into exile on 
the island of Elba. 

Once more Napoleon tried his fortune. He escaped 
from Elba, gathered an army about him, and promised 
France " peace and liberty." The kings of Europe 
proclaimed him an outlaw. On June 18, 181 5, their 
armies, with the Duke of Wellington in the lead, over- 
whelmed Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo. This 
time Napoleon was sent far away to St. Helena, an 
island in the South Atlantic Ocean. There he was 
guarded day and night until his death in 1821. Twenty 
years later the French brought his body back home and 
placed it in an imposing tomb at Paris, where it rests 
to-day. 

America and the Napoleonic Wars. The long wars 
between England and France gave both of them an 
excuse to prey upon American commerce. French 
cruisers seized American ships and goods bound to 
England. The English did the same thing to ships 
and goods bound for France. Still they were not satis- 
fied. They searched American ships for British-born 
sailors, and carried away some who were really Ameri- 
can citizens. All through Jefferson's eight years as 
President seizures by the French and the English went 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 



315 




3i6 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

on, trying American patience to the utmost. Finally, 
in Madison's administration, in 1812, Congress declared 
war on England, opening a conflict for more than two 
years {First Book, pp. 181- 190). 

One great advantage came to the United- States 
from the long struggle among the European powers. 
That was the purchase of the Louisiana territory in 
1803. Napoleon had compelled Spain to cede it to 
him three years before ; then, fearing that England 
might wrest it from him, he quickly sold it to the 
United States. So much at least America owes to the 
career of Napoleon Bonaparte. 

The Results of the French Revolution. When 
Napoleon was overthrown, in 181 5, the Bourbons were 
restored to the kingdom of France ; but the old order 
was not brought back again with them. The power 
of the clergy and the nobility had been badly broken ; 
they never fully recovered their ancient position. The 
king, moreover, could no longer make laws without 
the consent of a parliament. The age of Louis XVI 
had passed forever. 

In addition, all Europe was in ferment with new 
ideas. Everywhere people talked of the " rights of 
man," even in distant Russia. It was said that all 
men, rich and poor, noble and common, should be 
equal. before the law; that men had a right to make 
their own laws and lev}^ their own taxes. Religious 
toleration was widely accepted in theory and some- 
what in practice. Everywhere people talked of new 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 317 

things. Even the idea of votes for women was ad- 
vanced. Freedom of speech and press lived on in 
spite of maiiy difficulties. The notion of free public 
schools had been put forward during the revolution. 
It was not put into practice then, but it continued 
to live in the minds of the people. 

Feudalism was tottering to its final fall. Napoleon 
had abolished the rights of the nobility in Italy and 
Spain by force of arms and by imperial decrees. Thou- 
sands of the great estates owned by landlords were 
broken up into small farms tilled by their owners. 
New " peasant democracies " began to take the place 
of aristocracies. 

Though attempts were made everywhere to undo 
the effects of the French revolution, they were not 
successful. All western Europe was passing out of 
the feudal and clerical age. Even in Germany the 
two or three hundred petty princes whom Napoleon 
overthrew were never restored. The Holy Roman 
Empire (p. 166) — long a mere shadow empire — 
which he destroyed was never called to life again. The 
rulers of Prussia and Austria tried in vain to stop the 
spread of French notions among their subjects. Even 
far-away Russia could not escape the influence of the 
French example. Though they did their best, kings 
and czars could not blot out the history of the past 
twenty-five years. The day was to come when echoes 
of the Marseillaise would be heard in the streets of 
Berlin, Vienna, and St. Petersburg. 



3i8 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Questions and Exercises 

L I. Compare the condition of the common people of France 
with that of the common people of England in the early part of 
the eighteenth century. Study the powers that the French king 
had at that time (p. 292) and tell what bodies have these powers in 
our country to-day. 2. Compare the account of French classes 
(king, nobility, and common people) given in this chapter vith 
the account in chapter x of the classes in England. In wnich 
country were the nobles the more powerful ? The clergy .'' 

n. I. Why is the first revolt of the people against the French 
king called the "peaceful revolution".? Can you think of any 
reasons that will explain why the common people of France began 
their revolution with an attack on the royal prison, the Bastille ? 
What kind of prisoners were probably kept there .? 2. How did 
the first two years of the French revolution difi'er from the first 
two years of the American revolution.? 3. Why were the kings 
of surrounding nations anxious to see the French king restored to 
his old position of power ? 4. England had already made long 
advances toward democracy; why, then, were the English people 
ready to make war on the new French republic.? 5. In what 
important ways did the French government between the years 
1795-99 differ from our government to-day? 6. At the out- 
set of the French revolution many if not most Americans were 
sympathetic with the French people. Later there was a strong 
feeling against them. Make a list of the reasons for this change 
of .opinion. 7. What is meant by "neutrality" in war? Why 
did Washington wish to have the United States remain neutral in 
the war between the new French republic and England ? 

III. I. How did it happen that a young man like Napoleon 
could come into power so quickly ? 2. Compare Napoleon with 
Cromwell and with Washington. Which of the three do you 
admire the least, and why? With what military leader of the 
ancient world would you compare Napoleon ? 3. What reasons 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 319 

can you think of that will explain why the conquest of Russia and 
of England was too great a task even for Napoleon ? 4. The 
battle of Waterloo is regarded as one of the most important, or 
" decisive," battles of history. Why? 5. What were the effects 
of the Napoleonic wars in America ? In Europe ? 

Geographical Studies 

I. From the map on p. 312, find out why the kings of Austria 
and Prussia, as told on p. 302, took such interest in the French 
revolution. 2. By a study of the map just referred to, find out 
what modern nations were included in the empire of Napoleon 
at its greatest extent. 3. Locate Waterloo. 

Suggestions for Reading 
for pupils 

BiRKHEAD, Alice — The Story of the French Revolution; Crowell. 

Dale — Landmarks of British History^ xix. 

DuTTON, Maude B. — Little Stories of France^ pp. 132-171 ; Amer- 
ican Book. 

FiNNEMORE, J. — Peeps at History, France, x-xy; Adams and 
Black. 

Macgregor — The Story of France, Ixix-lxxiii. 

Marshall — A History of France, Ixxvi-lxxxii. 

Morris, Charles — Historical Tales, France, xxi (p. 233), xxx; 
Lippincott. 

O'Neill — The Story of the World, xliii. 

Tappan — Hero Stories of France, xxxi. 

Van Loon — The Story of Mankind {School edition), xlvi, lii-lv. 

FOR teachers 

Ashley, R. L. — Modern European Civilization, vi-vii ; Mac- 

millan. 
Tarbell, Ida M. — Napoleon; Macmillan. 



320 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Suggestions for Review of Chapters IX-XII 

L I. Make a list of the most important events that are de- 
scribed in these four chapters. Arrange these first in the order 
of time, and then try to rearrange them in what you think to be 
the order of their importance. 2. How many years passed be- 
tween the discovery of America and the end of the Napoleonic 
wars ? On the blackboard draw a line six feet long. Let the left 
end of the line mark the fall of the Roman empire and the right 
end the close of the Napoleonic wars. Place a mark at the proper 
point indicating the discovery of America. Make other marks 
indicating what you consider to be the most important dates of 
these two periods. 

IL I. What great rights did the common people of Europe 
gain during the period covered by these four chapters ^ In what 
countries did the common people make the greatest progress during 
this period ^ In what countries did they make little or no progress .? 
2. Make a list of the persons mentioned in these five chapters 
who in your judgment did the most for their fellow men. Have 
committees appointed to find out all they can about these men 
and to report to the class the important facts about their lives and 
the reasons which justify us in learning about heir deeds and 
honoring their memories. 



CHAPTER XIII 
THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 

The Slow Progress in Industry in Olden Times. 

All the revolutions in empires, kingdoms, and republics 
which filled the pages of history down to the eighteenth 
century made few changes in the way in which the 
mass of the people lived and worked. The great 
nations of antiquity rose and fell ; city-states flourished 
and withered ; commercial towns sprang up and de- 
cayed ; Rome spread out her broad empire and then 
broke into pieces; kings and princes fought for centuries 
over fragments of territory ; constitutions were framed 
and parliaments created. All the while the mass of 
the people in Europe — the peasants with their hoes, 
the artisans at the forge, the women at the loom — 
went on with their work as usual. All the while they 
were using the few crude and simple tools that had 
been invented in the early days of mankind. Through- 
out their long history, the English and the French, like 
the Greeks and the Romans, had made few improve- 
ments in the plow, the wagon, or the loom. Wheat 
was cut with a sickle and threshed with a flail, 
almost as in the first days of agriculture. Through 

321 



322 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



the two thousand years and more of their progress, 
the Greeks and Romans made Httle advance over the 
crude methods of the earHest times. Indeed, they 
both looked with scorn upon all hand labor and 




Keystone View Co.. Inc. 



Spinning by Hand in Japan To-day 



thought it beneath the dignity of any educated person 
to care about making better tools or making the bur- 
den of toil lighter for human beings. 

All during the middle ages, the age of discovery, the 
Protestant Reformation, and the English political 
revolution, the same ways of working were continued. 



THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 323 

When King John was forced to grant Magna Carta, 
the plow used in the fields of England was modeled 
on the same lines as the plow introduced by the Romans 
when Britain was a province of their empire. When 
the Pilgrims set sail for America in 1620, the women 
of England spun and wove cloth by hand, as their 
ancestors had in the days of King John. The lumbering 
stagecoach and the creeping sailboat were the chief 
means of travel and trade. In order to secure a bare 
livelihood, to say nothing of comforts and luxuries, 
the masses had to spend laborious days digging, sowing, 
reaping, spinning, and weaving. The sons and daugh- 
ters of peasants became peasants ; they lived and died 
in the village where they were born. The sun rose and 
set with serene monotony on changeless days of toil. 

A Sudden Revolution in Industry. Then suddenly, 
about the middle of the eighteenth century, there began 
a series of remarkable inventions which in time turned 
upside down the old world of peasants and artisans. 
New ways of working, living, trading, and traveling 
were discovered. A new age was opened — our modern 
age of steam and machinery, gigantic factories, smoky 
industrial cities, roaring furnaces, thundering expresses, 
ocean steamships, mysterious electric instruments, and 
swift automobiles and airplanes. 

As time went on the inventors worked faster and 
faster. The man with a hoe, bowed by the weight 
of centuries, was startled to find a tractor driven up 
beside him. Women, bending over their shuttle day 



324 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

and night, could not weave cloth fast enough by hand 
to compete with the flying shuttle driven by steam ; 
so they were drawn forth by thousands to the factories 
to tend steel fingers that flew with lightning speed 
and knew not weariness. The place of the stagecoach 
was taken by the railway. The lazy sailing vessel was 
nosed aside by the ocean greyhound that sped over 
the Atlantic in less than six days. Coal and oil drawn 
from the earth in huge quantities gave heat and 
light for multitudes whose ancestors for centuries 
had shivered in darkness. 

The Idea of Progress. Industrial events brought 
changes in the life of the people as no political events 
had ever done. Peasants left the soil and went into 
industrial towns or across the sea in search of employ- 
ment. Women and girls, for the first time, worked 
in factories and were paid in money for their labor. 
Millions learned to read and write. The idea of prog- 
ress — of endless improvement in the lot of mankind 
— seized upon the minds of humanity. Those who 
labored at the plow, the forge, and the loom no longer 
accepted in silence any fate that befell them; they 
declared they would be citizens, voters, and architects 
of their own fortunes. The age of democracy — the age 
of the people — burst upon the astonished world. 

This marvelous epoch of progress was opened by 
obscure artisans, mechanics, and smiths who, with end- 
less patience and in the face of trials and discourage- 
ments, made one ingenious machine after another. 



THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 



325 



They were benefactors of mankind who have never 
figured largely on the pages of history. Nevertheless 
they did more to change and improve the lot of the 
people than all the generals and statesmen that ever 




From an old print 
Carrying Freight in England in the Eighteenth Century 

lived. So great was the change which they wrought 
in the life of Western nations that it has rightly been 
called the industrial revolution. In this work of inven- 
tion, America did a lion's share. 

Steam Power 

The Uses of Power. If you will stop to think about 
the things you use in daily life, you will find that power 



326 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



has been employed to fashion them. Nothing can be 
made without the use of some kind of power. Take, 
for example, a loaf of bread. Power is used to break 
the ground, sow the seed, reap the grain, grind the 
flour, and knead the dough. So with everything we use. 
In olden times the power of men, women, children, 
and beasts, of wind and water, was used to turn wheels 




From an Old print 
An English Water Mill in the Eighteenth Century 

and make goods. But animal and human power is 
limited ; the wind is fickle ; and waterfalls are found 
only in certain places. As long as mankind had only 
these sources of power, the output of goods was nec- 
essarily small. 

James Watt and the Steam Engine. In 1736 there 
was born in Scotland a genius who was to place un- 
limited power at the service of mankind. His name 



THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 327 

was James Watt. A story is told that he got the idea 
of using steam power by watching the steam in his 
mother's teakettle push the lid up. Unfortunately 
this pretty tale is a fiction. 

Long before Watt was born, the power of steam was 
known and many men had attempted to harness it. 
The furnace and boiler had been invented to generate 
steam. A steam engine had been devised that would 
push a pump handle up and down ; but it was a very 
awkward thing and would not turn a wheel. 

Watt, who was a skilled mechanic at the University 
of Glasgow, had in his collection of models a small 
steam engine of the old, crude type. It was while 
working on this machine that he got the idea of a better 
engine. He made his first invention in 1765 and took 
out his first patent four years later. 

Watt made two important advances. He cut down 
the waste of coal in generating steam and he fixed the 
engine so that it would turn a wheel. 

As he was a poor man, he had to form a partnership 
with Boulton, a man of money, in order to manufacture 
his engines. For many years the two men built en- 
gines at Birmingham, in England. Watt kept on 
making improvements in the engine until his death in 
1 8 19. Thanks to his labors, there was henceforward 
no limit to the amount of power for the making of 
goods. It is estimated that the steam engine '' has 
added to human power the equivalent of a thousand 
million men." 



328 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 




from an uid prim 



The Boyhood of James Watt 



The Steamship. Power is necessary for carrying 
goods from place to place as well as for making them. 
On the sea, wind and oars had always been used to 
drive ships. On land, horses, asses, and oxen were 
employed to drag carts and wagons. How slow those 
old methods were ! How natural that some one should 
think of using the steam engine to drive ships and 
wagons ! Indeed, other men in Europe and America were 
already thinking about it when Watt took out his 
first patent. It so happened that the honor of making 
the first successful steamboat was won by an American, 



THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 



329 



Robert Fulton {First Book, pp. 221-224). I^ was In the 
year 1807 that he sent his steamboat, the Clermont, up 
the Hudson River and back again. This was a great 
triumph for Fulton, but it is due to truth to say that 
a part of the honor belongs to Watt. Fulton used in 
the Clermont a steam engine made by Watt and Boulton 
at Birmingham. In fact, Fulton had visited England 
himself and had learned much there about the use of 
steam. He tried to interest the great Napoleon in 




Natural History Museum 
Model of an Early Paddleboat Made Years before the Clermont 

his ideas before he found help in the United States. 
The Steam Railway. While Watt and Fulton were 
busy with their machines, other men were at work 
trying to apply steam to driving wagons. The very 
year in which Watt took out his first patent, a French 
inventor, Cugnot, made a steam wagon which carried 
four persons along a road at the rate of a little over 
two miles an hour. An engine built according to his 
plans in 1770 is still to be seen in the industrial mu- 
seum in the city of Paris. 



330 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

A few years later a workman in the shops of Watt 
and Boulton in Birmingham made a small steam car- 
riage which, we are told, ran a mile or two carrying "" a 
poker, a fire shovel, and a pair of tongs." In 1804, a 
Cornish engineer. Richard Trevithick, built in Wales 
a locomotive which drew along a tramway five wagons 
with a thirteen-ton load at the rate of five miles an 
hour. Likewise in other parts of Great Britain, other 
inventors were busy with the idea of steam locomotion. 

In 1825, there was built in the north of England the 
first public steam railway in the world, running from 
Stockton to Darlington, a distance of about twenty 
miles. George Stephenson planned and drove the 
first locomotive over the line. With the completion 
of the Manchester and Liverpool system in 1830, the 
age of steam railways was begun. Within twenty-five 
years, the principal cities of western Europe had rail 
connections with one another. George Stephenson 
was praised as one of the first inventors of all times. 
In truth, however, a great deal of credit for patient 
experiments belonged also to other men who failed to 
make a business success of their locomotives. 



The Invention of Machinery 

Old Ways of Spinning. While James Watt was 
improving the steam engine to take the place of human 
power, other inventors were making machines to take 
the place of arms and fingers. The earliest of these 



THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 



331 



inventions were in the textile industry ; that is, for 
spinning yarn and weaving cloth. 

From ancient times woolen threads had been spun 
by hand. The spinner placed a bunch of wool on a 
stick known as a distaff, drew out a few fibers, twisted 
them together, and attached them to a stone called 
the whorl. The whorl was then given a sharp stroke 
and allowed to drop down, turning rapidly around. 
When a few feet were spun the thread was wound on a 
stick and the process of drawing and twisting repeated. 
As you may imagine, it was slow and tedious work. 
The spinning wheel, which came into use in the 
later middle ages, was a vast improvement on the 
distaff ; yet it too was slow. The spinner could spin 
only one thread at a 
time. 

The Old-Fashioned 
Loom. Weaving was 
also done by hand. 
The weaver fastened 
stout threads, called 
the warp, in parallel 
rows on a round pole 
and attached the loose 
ends to a second pole. 
The poles were then 
fastened a few feet 

apart, thus stretching Natural HUtor^Museum 

out three or four feet diagram Showing uow Weaving Is Done 



///////////////////ft. 
mlmmmmi 



ZTj 




332 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

of the warp. The weaver took finer thread, called the 
weft, and wound it on a stick or shuttle. All was now 
ready for weaving. The shuttle was pushed in and 
out between the threads of warp. Forward and back 
went the shuttle lacing the weft with the warp and 
making cloth. The hand loom generally in use in the 
eighteenth century was little more than a wooden frame 
for holding the warp in place while the weaver oper- 
ated the shuttle. 

The Spinning Jenny. At the very time when James 
Watt was making his first improvements in the steam 
engine, a clever mechanic at Blackburn, England, 
James Hargreaves, was working on a machine for spin- 
ning several threads at once. About 1767, two years 
before Watt's first patent, Hargreaves built a machine 
which he called a ''jenny" (perhaps after his wife). 
His machine had eight spindles instead of one and 
could be operated easily by a child. 

The Factory System. A year later an English barber, 
Richard Arkwright, took out a patent for another 
spinning machine. He made several of them and 
drove them all by a water wheel. For this reason he 
is called '' the father of the factory system." By this 
time scores of mechanics were trying to perfect the 
spinning jenny. At last there was built a machine 
which spun several hundred threads at a time and 
required the attention of merely one or two boys or 
girls to mend the threads when they broke. 

The Power Loom. The invention of the spinning 



THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 



333 



machine, of course, increased immensely the output of 
yarn. The weavers then had to " speed up." It was 
not strange, therefore, that inventors should think 
of improving the old-fashioned and slow hand loom. 
Indeed, as early as 1738 an English mechanic, John 




Keystone View Co. 

Glimpse of a Modern Spinning Machine in a Factory 



Kay, hit upon the idea of driving the shuttle to and fro 
by means of a lever or handle attached to the loom. 

For nearly fifty years no other important improve- 
ments were made. Then, just as the American revolu- 
tion was coming to a close, an English clergyman, 



334 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



Edmund Cartwrlght, began to work on a loom that 
could be driven by power. By 1787, he had his machine 
in operation. It was a cumbersome affair, at first, 
but year after year it was improved and refined. At 
length a loom was perfected that would throw the 




© Keystone View Co., Inc. 
A Modern Lathe to Turn Heavy Iron Work 

shuttle to and fro four hundred times a minute and 
weave the most complicated patterns. 

Iron and SteeL When the age of invention opened, 
the methods employed in making iron were almost as 
crude as in Caesar's day. Charcoal was used to melt 
the ore, and hand bellows to furnish the blast for the 



THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 335 

very hot fire required. Small pieces of iron were 
tempered into steel by a slow hand process. As long 
as such tedious methods lasted, invention in other fields 
was limited, for machines are nearly all made of iron 
and steel. Without them, there could be no railways, 
steamships, or steam engines, to say nothing of spinning 
jennies, looms, and a thousand other useful machines. 

The situation was fully understood by many inven- 
tors, and about 1750 they started a revolution in the 
iron industry. At that time coal was first applied to 
smelting iron ore. In a few years the bellows w^ere 
thrown away and the blast was furnished by compressed 
air from iron cylinders. Within forty years, the steam 
engine was harnessed to drive the air-blast machine. 
In the course of time, hot air was substituted for cold 
air, and a way was discovered for changing iron into 
steel in immense quantities as it poured from the fur- 
nace. 

The Flood of Inventions. As soon as the human 
mind was turned to invention, there seemed to be no 
limit to its powers. The Greek philosophers had 
scorned the practical arts ; the modern nations glorified 
them. Every year the patent offices of the European 
countries had to make room for new contrivances. 

From America, Europe borrowed the telegraph and 
telephone {First Book, pp. 228-231). The idea of a 
cable under the Atlantic Ocean was also American, but 
European capitalists helped to realize it in 1866. In 
many fields Americans and Europeans exchanged ideas. 



336 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



They learned from and taught each other. Invention 
became international. 

Every branch of industry and agriculture was trans- 
formed by machinery and steam. The inventor tri- 
umphed over Nature. He harnessed her power to turn 







3 




^ 


^■-^ M-t%i- 


1 




•^ 



© Keystone View Co., Inc. 
View of an Iron Foundry in England 

his wheels. He devised millions of supple fingers to 
take the place of human ones. He discovered a real 
fairyland of science. At the touch of his magic wand, 
cloth, knives, forks, spoons, plates, cups, saucers, shoes, 
lumber, nails, typewriters, sewing machines, reapers, 



THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 337 

automobiles, telephones, telegraph instruments, loco- 
motives, and electric lights flowed in avalanches from 
his giant factories. So it became possible for the 
masses to have comforts and even luxuries once denied 
to kings and princes. Surely the inventor deserves 
a place in history as well as the warrior and the politi- 
cian. 

The Meaning of the Industrial Revolution 

The Era of the Business Men. Before the age of 
:5team and machinery, agriculture was the chief occu- 
pation of the people; landlords and clergy were the 
leading men of affairs. As we have seen, these men 
held the high offices in the government under the king's 
authority. They directed the thought and labor of the 
people. Commerce, it is true, called into being a large 
class of merchants ; but as long as the goods were made 
only by hand, the opportunities for trade were limited. 

With the age of Watt and Fulton came the modern 
business men. They raised the money for factories 
and machines, organized industries, and brought to- 
gether hosts of workers. They planned railroads and 
steamship lines. They searched the four corners of 
the earth for markets in which to sell the goods they 
manufactured. They advertised and '' pushed " their 
wares, putting new things before the people, creating 
new wants, and so making fresh business all the time. 

Ever alive to chances for greater profits, the business 
man discarded old methods, '' boosted " new ideas, 



338 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

and encouraged "progress." The medieval merchant 
had been a man of progress as compared with the 
landlord ; but the business man put all the drive of a 
steam engine into " making things move." The ox 
cart, the hand loom, the sickle, and the flail were made 
obsolete by his railway, power loom, reaper, and thresh- 
ing machine. Through their energy, their wealth, and 
their ingenuity the business men became more powerful 
than the clergy and nobility put together. 

The Industrial Workers. The steam engine and 
machinery also changed vitally the position of working 
people. In olden times, when tools were simple and 
cheap and operated mainly by hand power, every 
enterprising young man could look forward to the day 
when he would own a set of tools and be his own master. 
It is true that a clever mechanic sometimes gathered 
several hand looms under a single roof and hired em- 
ployees to operate them. Still there was little to be 
gained by this. Goods could not be made more cheaply. 
As long as weaving was done by hand, the loom was 
usually found in the home and all the family took part 
in making cloth. 

With the coming of steam and machinery, hand tools 
were driven out of business. The slow and weary 
arms of men and women could not compete with the 
swift and tireless steam engine. Therefore, in place 
of the small shop there came the vast factory. Work- 
ing people — men, women, and children — went out 
of their homes to tend machines in huge mills. They 



THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 



339 




340 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

no longer owned the tools with which they worked. 
They were employees of the men who furnished the 
capital to buy the machinery. They could seldom 
expect to become employers themselves. 

Thus there grew up in Europe a large class of people 
who did not own land or tools and who depended for 
a livelihood upon the sale of their labor to factory 
owners. In order to increase their wages and reduce 
their hours of work, employees in the leading trades 
formed trade unions. So the working classes drew 
together. Many strikes and long contests between 
employers and employees resulted from the efforts of 
trade unionists to better their lot. 

The Growth of Industrial Cities. All through an- 
tiquity and the middle ages, the great mass of the 
people lived in the country and worked on the land. 
At the time of the French revolution, perhaps nine 
tenths of the people of Europe were peasants or arti- 
sans living in small villages. 

The steam engine and machinery made a revolution 
in their lives. The factory was a great magnet which 
drew men and women and children into the towns. 
Important centers of trade and industry became gi- 
gantic cities. At the end of the nineteenth century 
most of the people of England were city dwellers. 
Ancient Rome at the height of her glory had about 
five or six hundred thousand inhabitants ; modern 
London has about seven millions. Within a radius of 
thirty miles of Manchester there were, in 1920, about 



THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 341 

fifteen million people, nearly all employed in factories, 
mines, and shops. 

Industrial Panics. These huge industrial cities were 
helpless without trade. They could grow no food or 
raw materials, like wheat or cotton, for themselves. 
If business was poor, factories were shut down and 
working people were unemployed. The peasants in 
the country usually had something to eat and wear. 
They could produce these things for themselves if they 
could not buy them. The industrial workers in the 
towns, on the contrary, were at the mercy of the market. 
If the demand for cloth or shoes fell off, there was a 
falling off in the demand for labor to make them. 
About every ten or fifteen years during the nineteenth 
century, the cities of Europe suffered from a panic 
and bad business conditions. Thousands were. unem- 
ployed and driven into poverty. Certainly the lot 
of many industrial workers was not to be envied by the 
peasants on the land. 

The Contest of Industry and Agriculture. After the 
invention of the steam engine, industry steadily gained 
in importance as compared with agriculture — that 
is, in the number of people employed, the money In- 
vested, and the profits made. As England was the 
original home of the industrial revolution, so England 
took the lead as an industrial nation. By the end of 
the nineteenth century, four fifths of the English people 
were engaged in factories, shops, offices, mines, and 
warehouses, and lived in cities ; only one fifth remained 



342 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 




THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 343 

in agriculture. Germany stood next with two thirds 
of her people in industrial and business pursuits and 
one third on the soil. France was about equally divided 
between town and country. In Italy, Austria, and 
parts of Russia, industry was growing steadily, but not 
as rapidly as in western Europe. 

In fact, in northern, eastern, and southern Europe ag- 
riculture held its own during the nineteenth century as 
the chief occupation of the masses. There the tillers 
of the soil, with a few machines to help them, worked 
the land with hoes and spades as their forefathers 
had done in the middle ages. 

In many places, especially Ireland, Italy, Poland, 
Russia, and Hungary, the land was not divided into 
small farms but was mainly held in great estates by 
rich landlords. Serfdom had practically disappeared 
by 1861, but millions of European peasants did not 
own any land. The landlords would not break up 
and sell their estates. So the peasants were not able 
to buy land. They had to work as renters or day 
laborers, if they found work at all. As their num- 
bers multiplied, it became more and more difficult to 
find employment. There were few factories in those 
countries and, as time went on, the working people 
had to search far and wide for opportunities to earn 
a livelihood. 

Resulting Migration. Amid these changing condi- 
tions, the fixed ways of living common in the middle 
ages were broken up. Peasants whose ancestors 



344 ^UR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

had lived undisturbed in their native villages for a 
thousand years were drawn into industrial towns. 
Millions of working men and women began to move 
to and fro. Artisans in search of employment or seek- 
ing to improve their lot went from city to city. 

At the same time migration from nation to nation 
set in on a large scale. Peasants from all parts of 
Europe went across the sea in throngs to find homes in 
North America, South America, or Australia. More- 
over, there were constant changes in migration itself. 
As industries multiplied in England and Germany, 
for example, the growing populations of the rural 
districts found work in neighboring factories. English 
and German migration to America, therefore, fell off 
until by 1890 it had dwindled to a small stream. 

By that time, however, the emigration to the United 
States from the farming regions of Scandinavia, Italy, 
Austria-Hungary, and eastern Europe generally, as 
well as from Ireland, had become very large. Of the 
1,058,000 Europeans who entered the United States 
in 1914, one of the years of heaviest immigration, more 
than one half were from Italy, Austria-Hungary, 
Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Whoever 
would understand America to-day, therefore, must look 
across the ocean to the lands whence came so many 
million citizens. 

The Influence of the Railways. By connecting the 
chief cities of the same country, the railways built 
up national trade. They enabled certain districts to 



THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 



345 



engage in Iron or cloth manufacture and to rely upon 
other sections for food and fuel. The most backward 
and out-of-the-way places were brought into touch 
with the most progressive business centers. For ex- 
ample, a Frenchman from the north of France, who 




Keystone View Co., Inc. 
An American Locomotive Ready for Shipment to China 



had scarcely ever seen a Frenchman from Marseilles, 
could now make a journey to that city In about fifteen 
hours. Newspapers could be carried quickly from one 
section to another ; they helped to give the people a 
larger outlook and to overcome local jealousies. In a 



346 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

word, railways tended to unite all parts of the same 
nation and to foster the spirit of nationalism (see 
below, p. 354). 

Then the railways overleaped national boundaries. 
The railway companies of different nations arranged 
to run cars from one country to another, and indeed 
across many countries. Long before the end of the 
nineteenth century, it was possible to take a through 
car from Paris to Berlin and St. Petersburg, or from 
Paris to Rome, or from Paris to Milan, Venice, Athens, 
or Constantinople. When larger and larger engines 
were built, the speed was increased until the journey 
from Paris to Constantinople could be made in three 
days. It took Caesar's legions more than a month 
to march from Rome to Paris ; the steam locomotive 
can make the trip easily in twenty-four hours. 

Railways thus became important factors In extending 
trade and preparing for war. The Germans, for 
example, planned a long line extending from Berlin 
to Constantinople and Bagdad. This was to bind 
Turkey and western Asia into a close union with central 
Europe. In this way, the Germans hoped to draw 
to themselves much of the trade that had once been 
carried by British merchant ships. The English were 
equally busy with plans for a railway line from Cairo, 
Egypt, to Cape Town far away at the southern tip of 
Africa. At the same time, Germany, France, and Russia 
were building railway lines to their frontiers. These 
were to be used in sending forward troops and supplies 



348 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

in case of war. So the railway, which helped so much 
to unite nations, also served to divide them and prepare 
them for war on a vast scale. 

The Influence of the Steamship. The steamship 
brought about quick, safe, and cheap communication 
between the most distant parts of the earth. Thus 
millions of Europeans were enabled to use tea, coffee, 
sugar, and other tropical products for the first time. 
Great manufacturing districts, such as those around 
Manchester in England, came to depend upon raw 
cotton bought in Egypt and the United States and 
upon the sale of their cloth in all parts of the world. 

Equally important was the effect of the steamship 
on emigration to the United States. In colonial times, 
a European workman often had to bind nimself to 
labor for a term of at least five years to pay his passage 
to America {First Book, p. 76). Toward the end of 
the nineteenth century, the steerage fare from Liverpool 
to New York sometimes fell as low as ^25. At the 
most, not more than a few weeks' labor served to pay 
the cost of the voyage. Consequently millions of the 
poorest people of Europe came to America. More- 
over, the steamship companies were always bidding 
against one another to get passengers. They sent 
advertisements and agents into the highways and by- 
ways of Europe ; they offered special favors to all who 
would buy tickets to America. So the stream of mi- 
gration swelled with the passing years. 

Cheap passenger rates also had another striking 



THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 



349 



effect upon migration. In the old days when the 
voyage was so costly, those who went to America went 
to stay. When the cost of their passage fell to $2^ or 
$30, thousands of Europeans went to the United States 
merely to make money. After they had made it, they 
returned home and bought land for themselves. More- 
over, thousands went back and forth, having no fixed 




A Great Trans-Atlantic Steamship 



home anywhere. This meant that the United States 
acquired many residents and workers who were not 
citizens — many residents who cared little about the 
fate of America and a great deal about making money 
out of America in a hurry. 

The steamship also Introduced new and serious 
elements Into warfare. It brought closer together 
countries that were once separated by journeys of 



350 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

weeks or months. A steamship can now cross the 
Atlantic in less time than it took George Washington 
to go from Philadelphia to Cambridge, in 1776, to take 
command of the American army. The very fact of being 
brought so close to Europe has made warfare at sea 
more serious than ever. Nations have grown to de- 
pend heavily upon trade by sea and upon food brought 
in ships. When war occurs, the country with the 
strongest navy can cut off the trade and the food of 
its enemies. This is what Great Britain did to France 
during the Napoleonic wars and to Germany during the 
World War that opened in 1914. So sea power has 
become one of the mighty factors in shaping the world's 
history. It was a great factor in the day of the sailing 
vessel. It is greater still in the day of the steamship. 

The Contest for Natural Resources. Besides mak- 
ing all these changes in the life of the peoples of Europe, 
steam and machinery added fresh sources of dispute 
among nations. In ancient times and in the middle 
ages, the masses of the people lived on bread, wine, 
and olive oil. They had only a few simple garments, 
and they usually slept on piles of straw. Their wants 
were supplied from materials at hand. Bread came 
from the fields and cloth from the backs of sheep. 
Each community and each nation met nearly all 
its own needs and did not depend very much on its 
neighbors. 

With the invention of the steam engine and machin- 
ery, this local independence came to an end. Few 



THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 351 

nations have all the raw materials used in their indus- 
tries. If a nation does not have iron and coal, at least, 
it lacks the chief elements of industrial success. It 
must either get these things by trade or obtain ter- 
ritory in which they are to be found. For this 
reason, Germany reached out to get possession of 
French iron mines in Alsace-Lorraine. England likewise 
reached out to get petroleum in Mesopotamia and 
coal in China. Modern industry, therefore, with its 
need of vast supplies of raw materials made great 
changes in the relations of nations, just as it changed 
the relations of people within each nation. Nations 
that had formerly fought for territory to be tilled by 
their peasants or pastured by their flocks, now be- 
gan to fight for territory on account of the wealth that 
lay beneath the soil. 

Questions and Exercises 

I. Preceding chapters have told of the English revolution, 
the American revolution, and the French revolution. We have 
learned that such revolutions are called "political." The present 
chapter tells about the "industrial revolution." In what im- 
portant ways did the industrial revolution differ from the polit- 
ical revolutions ^ In what way did the industrial revolution 
differ from the earlier "religious" revolution (see chapter ix) ? 

II. I. Make a list of the different kinds of power that are now 
used. Which of these were used by primitive men (chapter ii) .? 
Which were used by the Romans ^ 2. In what way did the 
invention of the steam engine "place unlimited power at the 
service of mankind" ? 3. Why is Watt's name so much better 
known than are the names of the inventors who first used steam 



352 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

power to operate pumps ? 4. Can you think of any reasons that 
will explain why the use of steam was at first much more successful 
in moving boats on the water than in moving cars on the land ? 
5. Compare the work of Watt, Fulton, and Stephenson. Of 
the three, whom do you regard as rendering the greatest service, 
and why ? 

in. I. What progress had been made in spinning and weaving 
before the use of steam power ^ The earliest textile mills were 
operated by water power. Is water power still used for this pur- 
pose ? (Find from your geographies where the important centers 
of textile manufacturing in America are now located.) In what 
way did the introduction of steam power help the textile industry ? 
2. How did the increased use of machinery increase the demand 
for iron and steel ? What improvements were made in the pro- 
duction of iron and steel because of this demand.^ 3. This 
chapter has dealt in part with three great topics : the appli- 
cation of steam power to transportation by sea and land; the 
development of the textile industry through improved machinery 
and the use of power; the development of the iron and steel in- 
dustry. Think of the various ways in which these three kinds of 
progress helped one another. 

IV. I. Tell why, after the industrial revolution, the "business 
man became more powerful than the clergy and nobility com- 
bined." 2. In what ways did the workers benefit by the in- 
dustrial revolution ? In what ways were they perhaps as badly 
off as they were before ? How did they try to better their con- 
dition .? 3. How did the industrial revolution make possible 
the growth of great cities ? Why was it impossible for these huge 
cities to grow up before the use of steam power in transportation .? 
In manufacturing.? 4. How does the life of the workers in the 
great cities compare to-day with the life of the peasants and artisans 
during the middle ages ? 5. Locate on the map facing p. 436 
the principal industrial countries of Europe to-day. Locate the 
principal agricultural countries. From what countries have most 



THE AGE OF STEAM AND MACHINERY 353 

of the recent Immigrants to the United States come? Why? 
6. In what Important ways In addition to carrying foodstuffs 
and manufactured goods have railroads and steamships changed 
modern life ? 

Suggestions for Reading 

Darrow, F. L. — The Boy's Own Book of Great Inventions; 

Macmlllan. 
Holland, Rupert S. — Historic Inventions, Iv, v; Jacobs. 
Marshall, tl. E. — A71 Island Story, xcvl ; Stokes. 
Quennell — A History of Everyday Things in England, II, III to 

p. 166. 
Van Loon — The Story of Mankind (School edition), Ivil, IvIII, llx. 
Warren — Stories from English History, pp. 383-406. 



CHAPTER XIV 

NATIONALISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

The Idea of Nationalism. Almost every one has a 
love for the place where he was born. All persons are 
likely to be proud of their own town, their state, their 
country. People feel more fellowship with those that 
speak their own language and belong to their own race 
than they do with those who speak other languages and 
belong to other races. This love of the homeland and 
feeling of fellowship is the spirit of 7iationalism. The 
whole idea is summed up in such slogans as " Italy for 
the Italians" and "Poland for the Poles." It was 
defined by President Wilson during the World War in 
this manner: " No people must be forced to live under 
a sovereignty under which it does not wish to live. No 
territory must change hands except for the purpose of 
securing to those who inhabit it a fair chance of life 
and liberty." 

Slow Growth of Nationalism in Olden Times. The 
rulers of the ancient world had no respect for nation- 
alism. Egyptian, Babylonian, and Persian conquerors 
showed no regard for races and nations as such but 
subdued them all with equal severity. The Romans 

354 



NATIONALISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 355 

brought within their broad empire the swarthy African 
as well as the fair Briton. They prevented wars of 
races by uniting them all under one rule. The Catholic 
Church, in many ways the heir of the old Roman 
empire, likewise made no distinction among nation- 
alities. " Of one blood are all races of men," ran the 
language of the Bible ; so the Christian ideal was that 
all men should join in one religious brotherhood under 
one head, the pope at Rome. The very word Catholic 
means '^universal" or ''all-embracing." The idea of the 
Church was peace and the union of nations rather than 
a sharp division of them along lines of race and language. 

The Practice of European Kings. The Church, how- 
ever, was not strong enough to keep peace and hold 
all Christendom together. As we have seen, numerous 
kings and princes rose and flourished in feudal Europe. 
They paid no more attention to the " rights of nations " 
than did the imperial despots of antiquity. In their 
numerous wars they were always trying to bring new 
subject races under their swords. At peace settle- 
ments, they handed peoples and territories around as 
if they were so much property. This was such a com- 
mon practice that the peoples bartered and sold by 
kings and princes seldom made any protest. In fact, 
one king was so like another that a change of masters 
made little difference. 

Western Europe Contrasted with Central and Eastern 
Europe. As we have seen, France, England, and 
Spain had become nations by the close of the middle 



356 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

ages. Each of them was ruled by one king and had 
a national language and literature. For hundreds of 
years, however, central and eastern Europe made little 
or no advance in nationalism. There many a race 
was divided and ruled by different kings. There it 
was a common thing for the same king to have, as 
his subjects, people of different races and tongues. 
Germans, Italians, Poles, Czechs, Serbs, Rumanians, 
and many other races were divided, handed about, and 
ruled without any respect for their wishes. 

The Settlement of 1815. This treatment of races 
was so common that few princes or governments ever 
thought of changing it. When the royal diplomats 
met in 1815, after the overthrow of Napoleon, they 
showed no respect for the rights of peoples. They 
found the Germans divided among many princes, and 
they left them divided. They found the Italians distrib- 
uted among half a score of rulers, and they left them 
about as they were. They saw the Poles divided into 
three groups, ruled by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and 
they made no change in that situation. None of these 
royal agents thought of criticizing the czar for holding 
down Finns, Swedes, Letts, and Poles by force. None 
of them dreamed of attacking the emperor of Austria- 
Hungary for keeping nine distinct races under his 
scepter. They thought him clever when he took as his 
motto " Divide and rule " and when he called in one of 
his subject races to crush an uprising of another. 

The Awakening of Nationalism. On the surface of 



358 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

things it appeared in 1815 as if this old custom of divid- 
ing and bartering races could go on forever. Soon, 
however, the spirit of nationalism began to upset the 
plans and confidence of kings. The idea of nationalism 
had been deeply planted by the French revolutionists 
when they boldly announced that the people, not kings, 
had the right to make laws and levy taxes. It was 
only a slight step forward to declare that any people 
or race also had the right to choose its own government 
and governors. 

The idea thus planted had been nourished by Napo- 
leon. He called on Italians, Germans, and Spaniards 
to cast off their kings and princes. At the same time, 
he himself acted like a tyrant toward them when they 
did. Then the Italians and Germans began to plan to 
get rid of him. It was when all Germany lay pros- 
trate under the heel of Napoleon that German orators 
and teachers began to appeal to the people to rouse 
from their slumber, shake off their chains, and assert 
their rights as a nation. 

Other forces, too, helped to create a national feeling. 
When railways came, they bound together the different 
sections of the same country. Trade cemented the ties 
of blood between these sections. Newspapers and 
books, circulating widely, gave to the same race common 
ideas and common hopes. The schools and the press 
overcame local dialects and gave a common tongue to 
each people. Poets, men of letters, patriot orators, 
in ballad, song, editorial, and stirring speech, praised 



NATIONALISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 359 

the glories of their respective races and called for unity. 
In time, therefore, armies that had once fought for 
the glory of princes were ready to fight for national 
glory and independence. Then kings and princes began 
to take note of this national spirit among the people 
and to use it cleverly for their own ends. 

How Germany and Italy Became Nations 

The German Confederation. A slight step had been 
taken toward German unity in 18 15. It was then 
agreed that the thirty-four states, each ruled by a 
prince, and the four free towns, governing themselves, 
should be bound together in a union or confederation. 
It was, however, a very loose union, something like 
that of the American states under the Articles of Con- 
federation {First Book, pp. 149-154). Moreover, it 
was not a union of people, but of sovereign princes and 
free cities. The parliament or congress set up for this 
confederacy was only a council of diplomats, chosen by 
the princes and the cities. It had very little meaning 
for the whole German people. 

There were several reasons for this. The most 
important was the jealousy of the princes. Each of 
them wanted to keep his full power over that section 
of the German people which he himself ruled. The 
kings of Prussia, Austria, Saxony, Bavaria, and Wur- 
temburg all cared more for their own little realms than 
they did for a German nation. 

The Movement for National Unity. Nevertheless 



360 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

three important factors in Germany were working for 
unity. 

1. The king of Prussia was ready to have unity at 
any time — if he could be master of the whole empire. 

2. Merchants and manufacturers wanted unity. 
That would mean abolishing the taxes on trade be- 
tween the German states, freedom of trade in Germany, 
and a duty on imports from foreign countries which 
would make it harder for foreigners to compete with 
Germans. In this they had before them the example 
of the United States. 

3. The third force making for unity was the activity 
of those who longed to see the German people united 
under a constitution of their own making. They 
thought they could carry out their design in 1848, 
when there was a general revolution against kings all 
over Europe. A congress of German delegates met 
at Frankfort, debated for many weeks, and drew up a 
national constitution. They could not, however, put 
it into effect because the king of Prussia, who despised 
the rule of the people, opposed it. He was waiting for 
his chance to bring about unity by the sword and to 
make himself master. He therefore persecuted those 
who pleaded for union and democracy. He drove from 
the land thousands of the friends of liberty, many of 
whom settled in the United States. Among them was 
Carl Schurz, who served with honor in the Union army 
during the American war between the states and as 
an officer in the federal government in after years. 



( 



NATIONALISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 361 

Bismarck and Prussia. In 1861, the king of Prussia 
called to his aid one of the most ingenious and powerful 
statesmen of modern times, Otto von Bismarck. These 
two men then set out deliberately upon the task of 
uniting Germany, " by blood and iron," under Prussian 
control. They enlarged the Prussian army. When 
the Prussian parliament refused to vote taxes, they 
collected the taxes anyhovv^. They waged war on the 
king of Denmark and wrested Schleswig-Holstein from 
him in 1864. They waged war on Austria and drove 
it out of the German union. They broke up the old 
Confederation of 18 15 and formed a new system known 
as the North German Confederation. 

The Franco-Prussian War and the German Empire. 
They picked a quarrel with Napoleon III, who had 
managed to make himself emperor of the French. 
Napoleon III was a man as ambitious as his famous 
uncle, but he had less ability. In 1870 France declared 
war on Prussia and was badly defeated. As a result, 
the Germans took away from France the two provinces 
of Alsace and Lorraine. At the same time, four South 
German states, still outside the union, joined the 
German Confederation. The Confederation itself was 
turned into an empire. The king of Prussia was 
crowned first German emperor on French soil in the 
royal palace at Versailles in 1871. 

Nearly all Germans, except those in Austria, were 
at last united — and with them many Danes, Poles, and 
French, in spite of themselves. From a people once 



362 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 




NATIONALISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 363 

divided and the prey of foreigners, the Germans had 
become a powerful military nation. They now had an 
imperial ruler of their own and were feared through- 
out Europe as the French had once been. 

Italy in 181 5. The Italians, unlike the Germans, 
were not even united in a loose confederacy by the 
Vienna settlement of 1815. On the contrary, Italy 
was made up of many independent states. In the 
north, Austria owned Lombardy and Venetia outright, 
and members of the Austrian family ruled over three 
little duchies besides. Across the center of the penin- 
sula were the independent States of the Church, gov- 
erned by the pope. In the south was the kingdom 
of the Two Sicilies under the sway of Spanish Bour- 
bons. The island of Sardinia and Piedmont on the 
mainland were governed by the king of Sardinia. 

Most of the Italian sovereigns were equally interested 
in keeping the country divided and in putting down 
all ideas of popular government. Austrian military 
bands played in St. Mark's square in Venice to amuse 
the people, but the Venetians were not allowed to 
discuss politics or independence. 

Mazzini and the Spirit of Italian Nationalism. 
Many Italians of the younger generation refused to 
be contented with their lot. They remembered that 
Italy had once been united under Rome. They re- 
called the glories of the ancient republic and of the 
Roman empire. They appealed to the people to arise, 
cast off the yokes of princes, and form an Italian nation. 



364 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Among the leaders of this movement was Joseph 
Mazzini (1805-1872), an eloquent speaker, a moving 
writer, and a brave man of action. He formed a so- 
ciety, known as Young Italy, which aimed at Italian 
unity under a republican form of government. 
*' Young Italy," he said, " is a brotherhood of Italians 
. . . who are convinced that Italy is destined to become 
one nation, convinced also that she possesses sufficient 
strength within herself to become one." For nearly 
fifty years he preached the gospel of unity, fearing not 
prison, exile, or battlefield. In 1848, when all Europe 
was in revolution and the Germans at Frankfort were 
trying to make a national constitution, Mazzini and 
his followers seized the city of Rome and declared a 
republic. The attempt failed, and Mazzini was driven 
into exile. 

Cavour and Victor EmmanueL The next year there 
came to the throne of Sardinia Victor Emmanuel, 
who desired Italian unity provided it could be brought 
about under his management. Moreover, he had a 
clever minister. Count Cavour, who ardently hoped 
that Sardinia might play in Italy the part played by 
Prussia in Germany. He did not believe that a republic 
was possible ; but he thought that the king of Sardinia, 
with the aid of France, might drive out the Austrians, 
overthrow all the other princes, and become supreme 
in Italy. 

For many years Cavour worked hard to bring this 
about. In 1859 the time seemed ripe to launch the 



NATIONALISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 365 



scheme by a war against Austria. Supported by 
Napoleon III, Victor Emmanuel defeated the Austrians 
at Magenta and Solferino and added Lombardy to 
his kingdom. Soon uprisings occurred in other parts 
of Italy in favor of unity. Within a little more than a 
year, all Italy, except Venetia and a small part of the 
domains of the pope at Rome, was united. In February, 
1861, Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed king of Italy. 

Garibaldi and His " Red Shirts." The work of 
bringing the Two Sicilies into the kingdom was largely 
done by the patriot Joseph Garibaldi and his band of 
" Red Shirts," as they were 
called on account of their 
uniforms. Garibaldi had 
been active in Mazzini's 
Young Italy society and 
had suffered persecution 
and exile. For a while he 
had been a candle maker 
on Staten Island in the 
harbor of New York. 

The war on Austria in 
1859 gave him a chance 
to fight for Italian unity. 
The next year, with the 

aid of his faithful follow- Garibaldi 

ers, he overthrew the king of the Two Sicilies. By 
a vote of the people, southern Italy then joined the 
North. Garibaldi was hailed as a national hero. 




From an old print 



366 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Unity Finally Achieved. When the new kingdom 
was formed, Venetia was still under Austrian rule and 
Rome was governed by the pope. Cavour said : " To 
go to Rome is for Italians not merely a right — it is a 
stern necessity." Austria, however, was very powerful 
and the pope was protected by French troops. Yet 
the opportunity desired by Cavour and Victor Em- 
manuel came. In 1866 Austria was at war with Prussia. 
The Italians were then able to obtain the coveted 
Venetia. Four years later Napoleon III was badly 
beaten by the Prussians and the French garrison was 
withdrawn from Rome. Thereupon Victor Emman- 
uel's troops took possession of the " Eternal City^" 
in spite of the protests of the pope. In 1871 the 
papal domains were annexed to Italy. 

King Victor Emmanuel, amid the cheers of the people, 
entered Rome and made it the capital of the Kingdom 
of Italy. The dream of the patriots, Mazzini and Gari- 
baldi, had in part come true. Italy was not a republic 
as they had hoped ; but it was united, and it had a 
national parliament, one branch of which was elected. 
Only a few Italians now remained under Austrian rule 
outside of the union. They, too, were brought into the 
family at the end of the World War in 191 8. 

Victor Emmanuel II was everywhere regarded as 
the founder of united Italy. After his death in 1878 
the grateful nation erected in Rome, not far from the 
old Forum, an imposing monument in his honor that 
recalled the glories of the Roman empire. 



NATIONALISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 367 




368 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Nationalism in Eastern Europe 

The Rule of the Turk. While the Germans and 
Itahans were drawing together in national unity, a 
number of races in southeastern Europe — Bulgarians, 
Serbs, Rumanians, Greeks, and Montenegrins — were 
striving with might and main to cast off the rule of 
an alien monarch, the Turkish sultan. For hundreds 
of years they had been restless under the sway of a 
government that was foreign in race and religion. It 
was in 1453 that the Ottoman Turks, the followers of 
Mohammed (p. 169), took Constantinople. They drove 
steadily westward, hoping to bring all Europe under 
their control. In 1683 they were at the very gates of 
Vienna. Then the tide turned. They were slowly 
beaten back by the Austrians, Poles, and Hungarians. 

At the opening of the nineteenth century, Turkish 
rule in the region of southeastern Europe known as 
the Balkans extended over many subject races. All 
the territory from the Adriatic Sea northeastward 
beyond the mouth of the Danube was held by Turkish 
officers and soldiers. The sultan was absolute in his 
authority and harsh in his manner of government. He 
laid heavy taxes upon the conquered provinces and 
held his subject peoples down by the use of military 
force. To quarrels over government and taxes were 
added religious and racial disputes. The masters were 
Mohammedans and Turks. The subjects were nearly 
all Christians and of different races from their mas- 



NATIONALISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 369 

ters. Now and then the spirit of nationahty, always 
smoldering, flamed up into civil war in which terrible 
deeds were done by both parties. 

The Rise of Independent Balkan States. The first 
people to break the Turkish rule were the Serbs, who 
by desperate efforts won the right of self-government 
in 1 817, under the leadership of Milosh Obrenovitch, 
a national hero. It was not until sixty years later, 
however, that the Serbs were able to proclaim their 
complete independence in the streets of Belgrade, their 
capital. In doing this they had the aid of Russia. A 
Serbian prince was chosen king. 

The example set by the Serbs in 1817 was soon 
followed by the Greeks, who also longed to be free 
from Turkish rule and to revive the ancient glories 
of their own land. Inspired by stirring appeals from 
patriot orators, they, too, rose in a desperate revolt. 
They proclaimed their independence, and called upon 
the Christian world for help. From all over Europe 
soldiers flocked to the aid of the Greeks, and supplies 
were sent from distant lands. Even in the United 
States, meetings were held to arouse public sentiment 
in favor of the Greek revolution. 

Fair Greece ! Sad relic of departed worth ! 
Immortal, though no more ; though fallen, great ! 
Who now shall lead thy scattered children forth 
And long accustomed bondage uncreate ^ 

So wrote the English poet, Byron, who answered his 
own question by giving his life to the Greek cause. 



370 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



In 1832, the powers of Europe recognized the inde- 
pendence of Greece and chose Prince Otto of Bavaria 
as the king of the new state. 

Nearly half a cen- 
tury passed. Then 
in 1878, with the 
military assistance 
of Russia, Rumania 
and Montenegro 
won their independ- 
ence. At the same 
time Bulgaria ob- 
tained the right of 
self-government, 
though it had to pay 
tribute to the sultan 
at Constantinople. 
Even that burden 
was cast off in 1908 
and complete free- flj 
dom from Moham- 
medan control was 
secured. German 
princes, as a result of action by the European powers, 
were chosen as kings of Bulgaria and Rumania. A ] 
local prince was made head of tiny Montenegro. ' 

Balkan Troubles. Independence by no means 
brought peace to the Balkans. The Turks still held 
much territory in Macedonia. Thousands of Serbs 




From an old pnnt 

Greek Patriots Mourning the Destruction of 
One of Their Cities in the War for Inde- 
pendence 



NATIONALISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 371 



and Rumanians still lived under the Austrian emperor 
and longed to join their independent countrymen. 
The Serbs, Rumanians, Bulgars, and Greeks were not 
satisfied with their boundaries. The races were so 
mixed that it seemed impossible to fix boundary lines 




Nationalities in Austria-Hungary 



which pleased them all. The result was constant 
turmoil among the Balkan states. 

Finally the murder of the Austrian archduke by a 
Serb in July, 1914, was a firebrand that set the whole 



372 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

world aflame. Then opened the terrible war that 
raged until 1918, involving countries as far apart as 
the United States, China, and Brazil. At the close 
of that war another effort was made to settle the affairs 
of the Balkans (see below, p. 436). 

Nationalism Suppressed in Austria-Hungary. While 
some of the Balkan races were shaking off the rule of 
the sultan, their kinsmen in Austria-Hungary were in 
a constant state of unrest. This empire had been 
built up through the long centuries by the Hapsburg 
family, whose members were always busy conquering 
new lands by arms. At the opening of the nine- 
teenth century Austria-Hungary embraced Germans, 
Magyars, Hungarians, Rumanians, Italians, Czechs, 
Slovaks, Poles, Croats, Serbs, and Russians. In 
Austria proper the Germans were in the lead ; in 
Hungary the Magyars, although for a long time the 
emperor and his German advisers at Vienna kept a 
strong hand on all sections and all races. 

Against this strict rule the subject peoples early 
began to protest. In 1848 they revolted. The next 
year the Hungarians declared their independence and 
chose the patriot Louis Kossuth as their governor. 
In a few months the armies of Austria, aided by Russia, 
came down upon the Hungarians and took away their 
liberty again. Kossuth, driven into exile, was brought 
to the United States in an American war vessel. There 
he was received as one of the world's heroes. 
. Though conquered, Hungary won a certain degree 



NATIONALISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 373 

of freedom. Later It was permitted to take its 
place as an equal beside Austria under a common 
ruler. The Czechs, Slovaks, Rumanians, Serbs, and 
other peoples under the control of Austria-Hungary, 
however, were not so fortunate. So they kept up their 
restless agitation for independence until they got it 
after the World War (see below, p. 436). 

Nationalism in Russia. Following the examples set 
by the HohenzoUerns and Hapsburgs, the czars of 
Russia had added to their dominions any territory they 
could seize or conquer. By this method they extended 
their empire from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. 
At the same time, they brought under their scepter 
Finns, Lithuanians, Latvians or Letts, Esthonians, Poles, 
Jews, Tartars, Armenians, Mongols, and Georgians. 

All the subject peoples were ruled, as indeed were 
the Russians themselves, by the absolute power of 
the czar. Though serfdom was abolished in 1861, 
the people were not given any voice in their gov- 
ernment. Moreover, the czar did all he could to 
'' Russify " the aliens ; that is, compel them to take 
the Russian language and customs instead of their 
own. This process was a bitterly hated one ; many 
and long were the protests and struggles against it. 
Yet the might of the czar, with his spies and his 
armies, was too much for the stoutest opponents. 
Not until the World War broke up the Romanoff 
empire were the various subject nations released from 
Russian control. 



374 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Dangers of Extreme Nationalism. The long strug- 
gles of European races for unity and independence 
were accompanied by many heroic deeds and sac- 
rifices. Thousands of men and women gave up their 
comfort, their safety, and even their lives that their 
countries might win the right of self-government. 
We owe to this spirit of devotion many an inspiring 
poem and many a noble deed. 

There was, nevertheless, another side to the spirit 
of nationalism. Those who were loudest in claiming 
their own right to liberty were often the very first to 
oppress others. Volumes could be filled with examples 
of such cruelty chosen at random from the pages of 
European history. Moreover, the spirit of nationalism 
easily grew into the spirit of arrogance. Pride in race 
and nation gave way to boasting and contempt for 
other nations. 

So nationalism, inflamed by orators, became one of 
the most dangerous forces in the world. When kings 
fought for their own ends they usually had small armies 
of hired soldiers. When nations began to fight, all 
the energies of united peoples were enlisted. It re- 
mains to be seen, therefore, whether nationalism can 
be kept within bounds and made safe for humanity 
or whether it is to fill the world with endless wars. 

Nationalism and Immigration to America. The 
many hard struggles of European peoples which we 
have just recounted have a very close relation to Ameri- 
can history. The United States was a place of refuge 



NATIONALISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 375 

for revolutionary leaders, like Schurz, Kossuth, and 
Garibaldi, when their plans for national independence 
and unity went wrong. In addition to the leaders, 
thousands of people from all the subject races of Europe 
flocked to America in search of freedom. The American 
people began to speak of the United States as '' the 
asylum of the oppressed of all nationalities," and en- 
couraged immigrants to seek homes in our country. 
Once here, the Germans, Irish, Poles, Jews, and other 
races still kept in touch with their native lands. They 
formed societies and raised money for the benefit of 
those who were keeping up the battle for freedom at 
home. They often urged the government of the United 
States to give aid to those they had left behind. Thus 
many strong ties were formed between the New World 
and the Old. 

Questions and Exercises 

I. I. What is meant by the ''spirit of nationalism"? 
2. Study the statement by President Wilson (p. 354). Find what 
the word "sovereignty" means. Under the sovereignty of what 
nation do you live ? Under what sovereignty are the people of 
Canada ? The people of the Philippine Islands ? The people of 
India ? What was Mr. Wilson's plan for deciding under what 
sovereignty a people should live? 3. How does this diifer from 
the way in which the ancient and medieval kings treated conquered 
peoples ? 4. Why are a common language and a common liter- 
ature so important in giving to a people the spirit of nationalism ? 
5. What is meant by a "dialect" ? Persons who speak the same 
language but use different dialects often find it hard to understand 
one another. How would the establishment of schools and news- 



376 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

papers overcome this difficulty and make it possible for larger 
numbers of people to have a common spirit of nationalism ? 
6. Some people believe that a single language may sometime be 
developed to replace the different languages now in use. What 
hopes do these people probably have in mind in suggesting a 
universal language ? Why would it be more difficult to establish 
such a language than it has been to overcome the differences in 
dialects ? 

IL I. How does a "confederation" differ from a "union"? 
In what important ways did the German Confederation formed in 
1815 differ from a true nation? 2. How did the Prussian king 
and Bismarck bring about national unity in Germany ? How had 
the delegates of the people who met at Frankfort in 1848 hoped to 
build a German nation ? In your judgment, which was the better 
way, and why? 3. How did the Franco-Prussian W^ar come 
about ? What were its important results ? 4. What were the 
important differences between the way in which the German 
people were made into a nation and the way in which the Italian 
people became a nation ? Compare the work of Mazzini, Victor 
Emmanuel, and Garibaldi with the work of Bismarck and the 
king of Prussia. 

III. I. Find out in what ways the Mohammedan religion 
differs from the Christian religion. 2. In 181 5 the people of 
Italy had a common language and a common religion, but were 
divided among different sovereignties. How did this condition 
differ from that of the people of Turkey? 3. Give as many 
reasons as you can to explain why the formation of free nations in 
southeastern Europe was more difficult than in western Europe. 
4. Compare conditions in Austria-Hungary in 1815 with con- 
ditions in Germany, Italy, and Turkey at that time. 5. In 
what ways did the rulers of Russia attempt to build a great 
Russian nation ? With what results ? 6. WHiat has the study 
of this chapter taught you about the things that make a group 
of people into a true nation ? What are some of the dangers of 



NATIONALISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 377 

extreme nationalism ? (For example, can peoples as well as kings 
be cruel and tyrannical ?) Can you think of any steps that a 
nation might well take to avoid these dangers ? 

Geographical Studies 

I. Compare the map of Europe in 18 15 (p. 357) with the map 
of Europe to-day (facing p. 436). What countries that are now 
united were then divided under different sovereignties ? What 
nations then divided are now united ? 2. How did the growth of 
the "rule of the people" as opposed to the rule of kings help to 
make the changes that you find in comparing the two maps ? 
3. Make a list of the names of places mentioned in this chapter, as 
was done for chapter xi on pp. 288-289. Then arrange them in 
columns as you were there Instructed to do. Add any new 
columns that may be necessary. 

Suggestions for Reading 

Fellow^s, George E. — Rece7it European History, iv-vl ; Sanborn. 

O'Neill — The Story of the World, xlv. 

Van Loon — The Story of Mankind (School editio7i), liv-lvi. 



CHAPTER XV 
THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY 

Attempts to Set the Clock Back. The French 
revolution, Hke the English and American revolu- 
tions before it, let loose in the world a flood of ideas 
about the right of the people to govern themselves, 
especially the notion that all men are equal. During 
the Napoleonic wars that followed the revolution, 
French thinkers stirred Europe with ideas of great 
reforms. Princes were overthrown in many countries, 
the property of the Church was seized, and serfs 
were freed. The common people, who had hitherto had 
no voice in affairs, began to think and to discuss public 
matters as never before in the history of the world. 

After the final defeat of Napoleon, however, many 
longed to see the '' good old times " again as they 
were before the revolution. Those who had suf- 
fered from the loss of property or feudal privileges 
sought to get back lost wealth. There were also others 
who believed that the entire revolution had been a 
terrible wrong and mistake. These helped to restore 
the kings and princes and to give the Church its for- 
mer power. 

378 



THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY 379 

So it happened that a ^' reaction " followed the 
defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. In Italy, 
Spain, and many German states, rulers were put upon 
their thrones again and given their former absolute 
power over their subjects. Prussia, Russia, and Aus- 
tria, which had felt the effects of the revolution least, 
continued to be ruled by absolute monarchs as in olden 
times. The very idea of a constitution giving the 
people any power of self-government was condemned 
by all the leading kings on the continent. In Spain, 
for instance, advocates of constitutions were liable to 
the death penalty. 

Certain Gains for Democracy. Though kings and 
princes were restored to their thrones with much 
pomp, the clock could really not be turned back. In 
France, a member of the old royal family was crowned 
as Louis XVIII, but he could no longer rule despot- 
ically. A parliament was set up and a large number 
of Frenchmen were given the right to vote. Taxes 
could no longer be levied or laws made without the 
consent of at least some of the people. Serfdom was 
gone from France and most of Germany forever. 
Everywhere in western Europe leaders among the 
peasants, artisans, and merchants boldly continued to 
discuss their rights and to question the power of 
princes. 



38o OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Democracy in France 

The Revolution of 1830. The kings soon found 
how deeply the revolution had stirred the world. The 
ruler of France thought he could give to the nobility 
and the clergy the position that they had once held. 
He thought also that he could control the press and 
stop popular criticism of his government. He soon 
learned a lesson. 

The people rose against Charles X, the brother and 
successor of Louis XVHI, In 1830 and forced him 
to flee from the realm. Among the leaders of the up- 
rising was Lafayette, who had helped Washington 
establish the American republic and who had taken 
part in the first French revolution. Attempts were 
made once more to abolish the monarchy in France. 
Although these attempts failed, the crown was taken 
away from the Bourbon king and given to Louis 
Philippe, who belonged to another branch of the family. 

Louis was called king of the French by " the will 
of the nation " as well as by " the grace of God." 
Moreover, he aped the simple manners of republican 
presidents. He did not make a great display of pomp 
and ceremony, but went about the streets carrying 
with him a green umbrella for sun or rain. More men 
were given the right to vote for parliament. The 
clergy and nobility were forced to one side, and the 
government of France passed mainly into the hands 
of business men. 



THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY 381 

The Revolution of 1848 — Republic and Empire. 

Louis chose advisers who opposed all further changes. 
One of them said that there were not more than one 
hundred thousand men In France who were capable 
of voting with intelligence and independence. This 
angered many people, especially the workingmen of 
the towns who did not have the right to vote under 
the constitution of 1830. Their discontent Increased 
until in 1848 It broke out in another revolution. 
Louis Philippe was forced Into exile ; a republic was 
proclaimed ; and a national convention was elected to 
draw up a new constitution. In all this the work- 
ingmen took a prominent part, in the hope of im- 
proving their condition. Women appeared In greater 
numbers as advocates of woman suffrage. 

As In the first revolution, things went peacefully 
for a while. Then violence followed. The govern- 
ment would not provide work for thousands of unem- 
ployed workingmen and terrible fighting took place 
once more in the streets of Paris. Peace was at last 
restored by the sword and the new constitution pro- 
claimed. It made provision for a president for a 
term of four years, as Is the case in the United States. 

At the first election, to the astonishment of the 
world, Louis Napoleon, a nephew of the great warrior. 
Napoleon I, was chosen president of the French re- 
public. Like his famous uncle, he began to scheme 
to make himself master of France. Within a few 
years he actually induced the voters to elect him 



382 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

'' Emperor of the French." So the third French 
revolution, Hke the first, ended in an empire. 

The Crisis of 1870 and the Third Republic. Na- 
poleon III thought of pleasing the French by giving 
them '' military glory." He therefore joined England 
in a war on Russia in 1854. He helped the Italians 
drive the Austrians out of part of Italy. He tried to 
turn Mexico into an empire as an offset to the power 
of the United States in the New World. Then, in 
1870, he became involved in a war with Prussia. This 
last adventure proved to be his ruin. His armies were 
defeated and he was taken prisoner. 

Thereupon leaders in Paris proclaimed a republic 
once more. While the German armies were still on 
French soil, an election was held for a national assem- 
bly. After many months of debate, this assembly 
completed, in 1875, a new constitution. France was 
a republic for the third time. All adult males were 
given the right to vote. The hope of the extremists 
of 1791 was at last realized. France had a president 
elected by the parliament for a term of seven years 
instead of a king ruling for life. 

Democracy in England 

The Old Parliamentary System. In the early part 
of the eighteenth century, England had stood out 
as the home of liberty in the Old World (pp. 245-254). 
The king could not make laws and levy taxes as he 
pleased. He could appoint and dismiss his mini- 



THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY 



383 



sters, but the taxing and lawmaking power had 
passed into the hands of ParHament. The king's 
officers did not censor the press ; editors freely dis- 
cussed politics and criticized the deeds of the king's 
ministers. Most of the writers who prepared the way 




From an old print 

An English Election Scene in the Eighteenth Century : Soliciting a Vote 

for the French revolution gained their leading ideas 
from the English system of government. 

Still England of that day — the England against 
which America waged her war for independence — was 
far from a democracy. The king enjoyed high au- 



384 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

thority. He could choose his own ministers. He could 
get Parliament to approve almost anything he wanted. 
By using money to bribe voters in elections and by 
promising offices to members of Parliament who voted 
for his plans, the king could nearly always get his own 
way. 

In fact Parliament usually thought as the king did. 
The House of Lords consisted mainly of nobles, whose 
number the king could increase by appointing his 
friends. The members of the House of Commons 
were elected by popular vote, but they did not speak 
for the mass of the people. Great cities, like Leeds 
and Manchester, which had grown up recently, had 
no members in the Commons. On the other hand, 
a country village with only a handful of residents had 
two members in the Commons. In all England there 
were only about 160,000 voters out of about eight 
million inhabitants ; that is, only about one man 
in ten had the right to vote for a representative in 
Parliament. 

The Demand for Reform in England. When 
George III came to the throne in 1760, the demand 
for a reform of Parliament had already been heard in 
England. Some leading statesmen asked that the 
little villages be deprived of their members in the 
House of Commons. They also proposed that the 
new cities be given representation. 

This spirit of reform was quickened at first by the 
French revolution. The government that was es- 



THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY 



385 



tabllshed In France In 1791 was far more democratic 
than that of England, and societies were formed in 
England to urge a peaceful revolution there. The 
reign of terror that soon began In Paris, however, 
frightened the English. The very Idea of any change, 
even a slight one, was then denounced as dangerous. 

The Four Great Reform Bills. It was not until 
after the overthrow of Napoleon in 181 5 that parlia- 
mentary reform was again widely debated In England. 
Then began a long struggle 
which did not end until our 
own time. England was made 
more democratic, however, not 
by violent revolution, but by 
gradual reform. There was a 
great deal of extreme talk but 
little disorder connected with 
it. William Ewart Gladstone, 
long the leader of the Liberal 
party, which favored reform, 
and Benjamin Disraeli, head of 
the Tory party, which favored 
the old order, finally agreed 
upon the idea of votes for 
all men in time to prevent revolution. 

By three great reform bills, passed by Parliament 
in 1832, 1867, and 1884, the right to vote was gradu- 
ally extended — each time to a wider circle of men. 
Before the end of Queen Victoria's long reign, which 




From an old print 

William Ewart Gladstone 



386 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

extended from 1837 to 1901, practically every man in 
England who had a settled home could vote. 

At the opening of the twentieth century, woman 
suffrage, or the right of women to vote, became a live 
issue; and in 1917 Parliament passed the most sweep- 
ing reform bill of all. Suffrage for all men was es- 
tablished, and nearly all women thirty years of age 
or more were given the vote. By this law England 
became the first of the great nations to grant the vote 
to women. 

The Modern English System. While more peo- 
ple were gaining the right to vote in England, steps 
were taken to give more power to the voters. The 
demand was made that the king should give up his 
right of choosing his own ministers. George III, 
{First Book, p. 103) stoutly resisted it, but before the 
end of his reign in 1820 he had been forced to yield. 
From that time forward, the actual government of 
England was in the hands of a group of ministers, 
known as the Cabinet. They are selected by the party 
having a majority in the House of Commons. 

By long disuse, the king also lost his veto power 
(p. 179). The House of Lords remained, but in 
191 1 it was shorn of its power to block bills passed 
by the lower house. Thus, by a gradual process, the 
English government became even more democratic 
than the French plan of 1791 which had alarmed the 
people of England at that time. 



THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY 



387 




388 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Democracy in Italy 

The King. We have seen how the king of Sar- 
dinia took the lead in uniting all Italy under his au- 
thority. It was in this way that Victor Emmanuel II 
made himself a national hero. His grandson, Victor 
Emmanuel III, fell heir to the glory of the house, 
though not to its popularity. There have been at 
all times many Italians who favored a republic for 
their country ; yet the king has managed to keep his 
crown through all the changes of the past decades. 

The Italian Parliament. The history of the pres- 
ent Italian form of government runs back to 1848, 
when Italy, like France, was the scene of a revolution. 
In that year, the king of Sardinia granted a constitu- 
tion to his subjects. He created a senate, or upper 
chamber, composed of men selected by himself ; and 
he established a lower house, or chamber of deputies, 
elected by the voters. When the king of Sardinia 
became king of all Italy, this charter of 1848 became 
the constitution of the kingdom of Italy. 

Some changes, however, were made in it from time 
to time. At first, a large majority of the men were 
denied the right to vote. In 1895 nearly every man 
who could read and write and lived regularly at one 
place was given the ballot. Owing to the backward 
state of education, however, this law still deprived 
hundreds of thousands of a share in their government. 
Finally, in 191 8, in the midst of the World War, Italy 



THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY 389 

gave the vote to all men over twenty-one years of age 
and also to men under that limit who had served in 
the war. Thus the democracy of manhood suffrage 
was established in the Italian kingdom. 

Only one branch of the Italian parliament, however, 
is elected by the voters. The senate was left unchanged 
by the various reforms. As in the beginning, it is 
still composed of the princes of the royal family and a 
number of distinguished men appointed for life by 
the king. Still, in choosing senators it is the prac- 
tice of the king to select men who are eminent in liter- 
ature, science, or public office. On this account the 
Italian senate differs from the English House of Lords, 
composed mainly of noblemen, and the American sen- 
ate, composed of members elected by the voters. 

Democracy in Germany 

The Prussian Monarchy. Prussia was the leader 
among the German states. It had more territory 
and more inhabitants than all the others put together. 
The Hohenzollern family that ruled Prussia had, as 
we have seen, built up its kingdom by conquering and 
annexing neighboring lands. Prussian kings, there- 
fore, relied mainly upon the army to keep them in 
power. They also had the support of a very rich and 
haughty nobility that owned large estates. Thus 
supported, the Hohenzollerns could scorn the very 
idea that the people should decide for themselves what 
was good for them. They claimed to hold their 



390 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

crowns " by the grace of God," as had their ancestors 
in olden times. 

The Prussian System. Still the Prussian kings 
could not stamp out entirely the idea of democracy. 
Their subjects, like the French and the Italians, were 
stirred by the thought of self-government. In 1848, 
the Prussian people, especially in Berlin, followed the 
French example in Paris and rose against the monarch. 
Because he feared something worse, the king of Prussia 
^' graciously granted " a constitution to his subjects. 
He gave up none of his claims to rule by divine right, 
but he did create a parliament. One of the branches 
was composed mainly of the great landlords, who had 
no more liking for democracy than did the king him- 
self. In the other branch, the people were given a 
voice. It was, however, only a slight voice. Two 
thirds of the members in it were elected by a small 
minority of rich men, while the masses could elect only 
a third. This was the Prussian system that lasted 
until the close of the World War (see below, p. 445). 

The German Empire. When the German empire 
was created in 1871 (p. 361), the king of Prussia 
was chosen emperor and care was taken to keep the 
German people subject to royal authority. A par- 
liament was established, but the lion's share of power 
was given to the upper house or Imperial Council. 
This council was made up of agents chosen by the 
twenty-two German princes and the three free cities. 
The lower house was elected. All adult males were 




Central Europe in 1871 
391 



392 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

given the vote ; but their representatives in parlia- 
ment could do very little except talk. The emperor 
appointed and dismissed ministers at will. In the 
making of war and peace, the elected branch of the 
government had no voice. William II, the last of the 
Hohenzollerns, who was forced to give up his throne 
in 1918, talked like the despotic Louis XIV. " Look- 
ing upon myself as the agent of the Lord," he once 
said, "" I go my way without regard to the opinions 
and sentiments of the day. . . . The only pillar 
upon which the realm rested in my grandfather's day 
was the army. So it is to-day." 

Such was the system that made it possible for a 
very few people to rule the whole German empire. 
Loud and long were the protests against it, but they 
were without avail until after the defeat of Germany 
in the World War (below, p. 434). 

Democracy in Southeastern Europe 

Austria-Hungary. Like the Hohenzollerns in Prussia, 
the Hapsburgs, who ruled in Austria-Hungary, had 
little liking for democracy. They had built up their 
dominions by the sword ; they depended upon the 
sword to hold their varied collection of peoples 
together. Still, even they could not stop the spread 
of new ideas. They, too, were forced to grant favors 
to their subjects. To each of their two realms they 
gave a constitution which provided for one house 
elected by popular vote. 



THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY 393 

Step by step, however, Francis Joseph, the Haps- 
burg emperor from 1848 to 1916, fought the rising power 
of the people, until in 1907 he was forced to give 
the right to vote to all men in Austria. In Hungary, 
on the eve of the World War, only tax-payers could 
vote. In both realms, the branch of the parliament 
elected by the voters was kept in close rein by a 
House of Lords and by royal power. In neither 
realm were the highest officers controlled by the par- 
liament or the people. As in the case of Germany, 
it took the crisis of the World War and bitter defeat 
to overturn the authority of the Hapsburg monarchy 
(see below, p. 450). 

The Balkan States. When the peoples of south- 
eastern Europe — the Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians, and 
Rumanians — escaped one after the other from the 
rule of the Turks (p. 370), they made beginnings 
in democracy. In each case a king was chosen, usu- 
ally on orders from the chief countries of Europe, 
especially Germany, Russia, and England. In each 
case also a parliament was created and a portion of 
the men given a voice in the management of public 
affairs. 

Rise of Democracy in Russia 

The Despotism of the Romanoffs. — Of all the 

countries of Europe, Russia was the last to feel the 
force of the French revolution. Like Prussia, it, 
too, had been built up by its army. Under the power- 



394 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



ful family of the RomanoiTs it became the most wide- 
spread despotism in the modern world. The czar 
ruled absolutely from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific 

Ocean. On the eve of the 
World War he had over 
180,000,000 subjects, nearly 
twice the population of the 
United States. 

The great Russian mon- 
archy rested upon founda- 
tions that seemed very solid. 
There was, in the first place, 
a huge and powerful army 
which the czar commanded as 
he liked. In the second place, 
there was the Russian Church, 
which taught his subjects obe- 
dience. From the highest of- 
ficial to the humblest village 
priest, the Church supported the monarch. It depended 
upon him for favors and in turn helped him hold the 
people in subjection. In the third place, no criticism of 
the czar was allowed in newspapers, books, or public ad- 
dresses. Spies and policemen searched high and low for 
anyone who said that the people ought to rule or that 
great changes ought to be made in the government. 
Finally, there was the ignorance of the masses. Most 
of the people were peasants. They had been freed 
from serfdom, but they were without education 




The Former Russian Emperor, 
Nicholas II 



39^ OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

and bent to the very ground with poverty, taxes, and 
wars. 

The Revolution of 1905. Each czar tried to 
prevent democratic ideas from creeping into Russia. 
Leaders who talked about reforms were whipped, 
imprisoned, or exiled to distant Siberia. They re- 
sponded by attempts to assassinate the czar or his 
officials and by acts of terrorism. The brutality on 
both sides was shocking. Meanwhile democratic ideas 
slowly spread among the Russian people. It was 
impossible to keep the doors and windows of Russia 
sealed. 

When Russia was defeated in a war with Japan in 
1905, the country was filled with famine and misery. 
Then the people rose in a desperate revolt against 
autocratic rule. Only by using the police and the 
army was the czar able to keep his throne. Still, as 
in the case of other monarchs, he had to pay the price 
by allowing the people a voice in his government. 
He created a national parliament, called the Duma, 
but he was careful to see that the landlords and his 
agents controlled it. Peace was bought for a short 
time. Then, in the midst of the World War, the czar 
was overthrown and his whole system broken to bits 
in a revolutionary outburst (see below, p. 446). 

Democracy in the Orient 

■ Japan. — When Japan was opened to the Western 
world in 1854, the Japanese people began to take an 



THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY 



397 



interest in Western customs and ideas of government. 
Students and travelers from Japan visited America 
and Europe and took back reports of what they had 
seen and learned. 
At that time, Japan 
was very much like 
the Europe of the 
middle ages. The 
mikado^ or emperor, 
ruled as absolutely 
as any medieval 
king. The country 
was divided into 
great estates owned 
by feudal lords and 
tilled by serfs. The 
masses could not 
read or write and 
accepted without 
question the com- 
mands of the em- ^^ , ... ^ , 

© Keystone View Co., Inc. 

peror. To most The "First Day of School" in Japan. (Note 
T ^1 • 11 THE Sandals, Which Must Be Left Outside) 

Japanese this old 

order seemed satisfactory ; but they could not pre- 
vent Western ideas and customs from creeping into 
Japan. 

In 1 87 1 the chief privileges of the nobles were 
abolished, as those of France had been in 1789. At 
the same time the serfs were set free. Soon the 




398 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

demand for a share in the government was heard. 
The emperor, wiser than some Western monarchs, 
did not wait for a violent revolution. He chose a 
commission of "wise men" to study the question of 
government, and in 1889 gave a constitution to his 
empire. He kept the right to appoint his own minis- 
ters and to command the army and navy ; but he 
created a parliament to aid in making laws and laying 
taxes. He formed one house out of the nobles and 
princes of Japan. The lower house, he arranged, 
should be elected by the voters. Since he was in no 
mood to try extreme ideas, he limited the right to 
vote to the well-to-do. 

After a few years a cry went up for " more de- 
mocracy." Leaders demanded the vote for all Japanese 
men, and even woman suiTrage was heard of in the 
land of the mikado. At the close of the World War, 
Japan seemed threatened by a revolution. In 1920 
the parliament passed a bill giving the right to vote 
to many more of the emperor's subjects. 

But Japan is by no means a democracy in the Eng- 
lish or American sense of the word. On the contrary, 
it is still very much like Prussia under the Hohenzol- 
lerns (p. 390). The Japanese constitution, like that 
of old Prussia, was granted to the people by the em- 
peror and can be taken away by him. The masses 
are taught that the emperor rules by divine right and 
the constitution declares that he is '' the head of the 
empire, combining in himself all power of state." The 



THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY 



399 





400 



THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY 



401 



emperor Is surrounded by a small group of men each 
of whom is the leader of a powerful political party. 
They are his close advisers. They are supported by 
the landlords, manufacturers, and business men of 
Japan, numbering about 125,000 out of seventy mil- 
lion people. These form the ruling class of Japan. 




Keystone View Co.. Inc. 

A Group of Republican Cavalry Officers in China 

They hold all the important public offices. They 
are feared and respected by the masses. Japanese 
religion and education both teach reverence for the 
emperor as the greatest virtue. 

China. The changes which affected Japan like- 
wise stirred the unwieldy Chinese empire. For thou- 



402 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

sands of years it had slumbered on under the sway of 
its emperors. Then it was suddenly aroused by an 
invasion of European and American traders and mis- 
sionaries. Chinese students and business men began 
to travel in Western countries and on their return home 
set about '' modernizing " China. 

The mass of the Chinese people knew little more 
than their ancestors had known four thousand years 
before. Still the reformers could not wait for slow 
growth. They overthrew the monarchy in 191 2 and 
established a republic, with a president and a parlia- 
ment. 

Instead of the prosperity that was expected to re-, 
suit from the revolution, there came civil war and 
years of trouble. Leaders of the army, especially in 
the north, longed for the return of a strong monarch. 
Leaders in the south, where the merchants were 
numerous, clung to the idea of a democracy. Both 
parties claimed to speak for China, but neither of 
them was able to establish itself firmly in the entire 
country. North China, however, won recognition 
from other countries. 

Democracy and Civil Liberty 

The Rights of Man. The French revolution, the 
industrial revolution, and the rise of democracy all 
worked together for a new kind of liberty. In the 
middle ages the fate of nearly every man was fixed 
at birth. The son of a peasant became a peasant and 



THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY 



403 



the son of a nobleman belonged to the aristocracy. 
In the modern age such old customs have become less 
rigid. As far as the law is concerned, every man is 
free to choose his own calling. He may go and come 

















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Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, English Woman Suffrage Leader, Speaking 

IN London 



at will within the nation to which he belongs. He may 
even be free to emigrate to some other part of the world 
to make his home. He is free, too, to think for him- 
self and to choose the church to which he wishes to 



404 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

belong. He may join any political party, and express 
his views on any subject. All these rights are known 
as civil liberties. 

The Rights of Women and Children. — Women and 
children, even more than grown-up men, were affected 
by these new rights. In the middle ages, a woman had 
practically no choice except to labor as a housewife 
or as a peasant in the fields or to enter a convent as a 
nun. In the modern age, women not only vote ; they 
may choose any one of many fields of industry or busi- 
ness. They may engage in a profession such as medi- 
cine, or they may take up teaching, literature, or art. 
They may earn their own wages and spend them as 
they please. They may hold public office. 

Even little children share in the new order of things. 
In old Rome the father had the power of life and death 
over his wife and children. To-day parents must 
allow their children to attend school. If they are 
cruel, their children may be taken away from them. 
Usually boys and girls may choose any life work for 
which they have talent. Public schools are open to 
them so that they may get a training for the work they 
select for themselves. In a way, therefore, we may 
call the age of democracy " the children's age." 

Questions and Exercises 

L I. What is meant by the 'word "reaction" as used in the 
third paragraph of this chapter? Reactions almost always follow 
severe wars ; can you think of any reasons for this ? 2. What is 



THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY 405 

meant by the statement, "... the clock could really not be 
turned back" (p. 379) ^ In what ways did those who came into 
power after the downfall of Napoleon attempt to "turn the clock 
back" ? 3. How many years elapsed between the beginning of 
the first French revolution and the second revolution ? Between 
the second and the third revolutions ? 4. Napoleon III is some- 
times referred to as "Napoleon the Little"; why? 5. What 
were some of the differences between the government of France 
under the "Third Republic" and the government under the 
" First Republic" ? In what ways does the government of France 
to-day differ from the government of our country ? 

II. I. Compare the power of the English king under the old 
parliamentary system with the power of the French king just 
before the first French revolution (see pp. 292-295). Why was 
England at that time "still far from a democracy"? 2. How 
could it have come about that a large city like Manchester sent 
no representatives to the House of Commons when many small 
villages had two members each ? (What great movement was 
taking place which caused the rapid growth of the cities ?) 

3. How did the progress toward democracy in England differ 
from the progress toward democracy in France ? In America ? 

4. In what important ways does the government of England 
to-day differ from the government of our country ? 

III. I. What advance toward democracy was made by Italy 
in adopting the charter of 1848? 2. What further advances 
were made in 1918? 3. Compare the present government of 
Italy with that of the other countries mentioned in this chapter. 

IV. I. Can you think of any reasons that will explain why 
the kings kept their power in Germany longer than they did in 
England, France, and Italy ? 2. How did the imperial council 
of the German empire differ from the House of Lords in England, 
the French parliament, and the Italian senate? 3. Why was 
the "lower house" of the German parliament less powerful than 
the English House of Commons ? 



406 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

V. What reasons can you give to explain why the development 
of democracy in southeastern Europe has been much slower than 
in western Europe ? (Recall the difficulties that the growth of 
free nations have met in these countries.) 

VL I. How did the rulers of Russia manage to hold their 
power for so long a time ? What effect did the location and size 
of the Russian empire have on the growth of the idea of democracy ? 
2. The Russian czars did not favor free schools for the common 
people. WHiat eifect would the lack of education be likely to have 
on the success of democratic government when it did come ^ 

Vn. I. Compare the growth of democracy in Japan with the 
growth of democracy in England, France, and Germany. 2. In 
what ways does the government of Japan more closely resemble 
the government of German3/ before the World War than the 
government of England and France.^ 3. Why has democratic 
progress been slower in China than in Japan : (Compare the 
two countries as to size and location.) 

VIIL I. Lord Bryce, a famous English scholar and statesman, 
defined democracy as "the rule of all the people as contrasted 
with the rule of a special group or class." What do you think of 
this definition ? 2. How has the growth of democracy helped 
the "common people" ^ (Compare the way in which the common 
people lived in the middle ages with the way in which they live 
to-day.) How have women and children benefited from the growth 
of democracy J 

Suggestions for Reading 
Dale — Landmarks of British History^ xiii. 
Macgregor — The Story of France, Ixxxiv, Ixxxvii. 
Marshall — Jn Island Story, c. 
Tappan — England's Story, xxxiv, xxxv. 
W^arren — Stories from English History, pp. 406-417. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 

The growth of industry, the rise of democracy, and 
the spread of national spirit all worked together to 
make more intense the age-long rivalry among European 
nations. It was hoped that they would bring peace, 
and yet the most terrible war of all history has taken 
place in our own time. 

As the mills and factories multiplied in Europe, 
business men of all nations became more and more 
active in selling their manufactured goods. They 
searched out markets for their wares in every quarter 
of the globe — in Asia, South America, and Africa. 
The competition among them became keener and keener. 

With the rise of democracy, moreover, the masses 
demanded more than the coarsest food and the barest 
necessities of life. They called for tea, sugar, coffee, 
and spices ; they insisted on having better houses and 
better clothing ; they came to regard as essential to 
their happiness goods that had to be brought from 
the ends of the earth. Thus, in a way, the business 
men pushing out to conquer new markets and outdo 
their rivals helped to bring about modern democracies. 

407 



408 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Finally, the spirit of nationalism served to increase 
strife among European countries. In the name of 
national pride and honor, governments sought to add 
to their colonial possessions and increase their foreign 
trade. In the name of nationalism, all European 
countries except England put tariffs on imports from 
other lands. In the name of nationalism, armies and 
navies were enlarged and other preparations were 
made for war on a vast scale. So nationalism widened 
out into the feverish contest for trade and territories 
known as imperialism. All the old rivalries of kings 
and princes, all the old contests of merchants and 
traders were stirred anew and in 1914 burst into the 
terrible conflict known as the World War. 

Europe in the Orient 

The Awakening of the Far East. The chief center 
of the new European imperialism was in Asia. There 
opportunities for trade were especially inviting. The 
Chinese and Japanese were skilled in many industries 
and arts. They had tea, silks, rice, spices, and other 
valuable products to sell, and the profits to be made 
out of the commerce were huge. Many difficulties, 
however, at first stood in the way of trade. The 
Chinese did not welcome Europeans. They would 
give foreigners only a limited right to traffic in cer- 
tain places. The Japanese were equally proud. 
Though more willing to trade with the Europeans, 



IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 409 

they resented the coming of Christian missionaries in 
great numbers. Finally they became so hostile that 
they drove out the aliens altogether and made severe 
laws against foreign commerce of any kind. For more 
than two hundred years, both China and Japan were 
almost sealed to the outside world. 




Ktysio/it View Co., Inc. 
A Famous Chinese Tea House in Shanghai 



They could not, however, keep their ports abso- 
lutely closed to the ever active foreigners. In 1842 
England waged war on China and forced her to open 
certain coast cities to general trade. Eleven years 
later, the United States government sent a commis- 
sion, headed by Commodore Perry, to Japan to open 



41 o 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 




IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 411 

relations with the Japanese government. Frightened 
by the experience of the Chinese, the Japanese regret- 
fully agreed to receive the commission. From that 
time forward the commercial nations of Europe, as 
well as the United States, have steadily increased 
their business with China and Japan. 

China and Japan Contrasted. The fates of the 
two Oriental countries, after they were opened to 
world trade, proved to be very different. Huge China 
fell a prey to the foreigners. The French seized vast 
territories in the southeastern part of the empire. 
The British established themselves at Hong Kong 
and Wei-Hai-Wei. The Germans in 1897 laid hold 
of the Shantung Peninsula. The Russians pressed 
in from the northwest and helped themselves. For 
a time it looked as if China might be seized entirely by 
foreigners. 

What a contrast Japan presented ! More secure 
in her island home, she grew into a strong industrial 
and military power. In 1894 she even attacked 
China herself and was easily victorious. The Japa- 
nese would have taken a large slice of Chinese terri- 
tory then if France, Germany, and Russia had not 
prevented it. 

Japan nursed her secret longings for ten years. 
Meanwhile she prepared a huge army and navy and 
made a treaty of alliance with Great Britain. All 
ready for the fray, she declared war on Russia in 1904 
and overwhelmed the czar's troops and battleships. 



412 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



Japan then took most of Russia's Chinese territory. 
A few years later, Japan occupied also the Chinese 
province of Korea, which she had long coveted. 

The '' Open Door " Policy. In this mad scramble 
of the powers to seize Chinese territory, the United 
States refused to join. It declared that China should 




Keystone View Co., Inc. 
A Chinese Shop with American Goods for Sale 

not be broken into bits and distributed among for- 
eigners. It said that China should be preserved for 
the Chinese and that all countries should have merely 
general trading privileges with the Chinese people. 
This was called the policy of the open door, so well 
known in America and so appreciated by the Chinese 



IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 413 

themselves {First Book, pp. 380-384). Between her 
attempts to beat off foreigners bent on her ruin and 
her efforts to establish a republic, China had appall- 
ing problems to solve. Knowing that Japan was de- 
termined to dictate to her, if possible, China turned 
to the United States for advice and support. 

European Occupation of Africa 

Exploration. By a strange stroke of fortune, Africa 
was the last of the great continents to be explored 
and seized by European powers. At the opening 
of the nineteenth century, it was so little known 
that it was properly called " the dark continent." 
The Egyptians, heirs of the ancient civilization of the 
Nile Valley, still had some dealings with the outside 
world. There were several trading ports along the 
Mediterranean coast also. The Dutch, French, and 
English, moreover, had visited the Atlantic shores 
to seize slaves for American markets. The Dutch 
had even planted a colony at the Cape of Good Hope, 
which had fallen into the hands of the English during 
the Napoleonic wars. The heart of the continent, 
however, was wholly unknown until after 1850. 

The work of opening Africa was undertaken by 
intrepid explorers, among whom David Livingstone, 
the life-long missionary, was perhaps the most famous. 
For more than twenty-five years he traveled about 
in the heart of Africa. Once he was lost for a long time. 
The task of finding him was undertaken by Henry M. 



414 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 




© A'. 



Native Pottery Makers in Africa 



Stanley, a writer for an American newspaper. After he 
had gone into the fever-laden jungle and rescued Liv- 
ingstone, Stanley continued his travels. He made 
the world familiar with Africa through many a thrill- 
ing story of adventure. His wonderful tale, How I 
Found Livingstone, ranks high among the books of 
travel written by Americans. 

The Partition of Africa. Before the explorers had 
completed their work, the leading countries of Europe 
began a general scramble to get African territory. 
England, France, and Germany were in the lead, with 



4i6 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



Italy not far behind. To the first of these countries 

fell the largest share. 

The English gained control of Egypt in 1882. They 

likewise pressed 
steadily inland 
from their foothold 
at the Cape of Good 
Hope (p. 268). The 
old Dutch settlers, 
the Boers, fled be- 
fore them into the 
interior and estab- 
lished two re- 
publics of their 
own. As they ad- 
vanced, the Eng- 
lish came to blows 
with these repub- 
lics ; after a short 
and bloody war, 
which opened in 
1899, they brought 
the Boers under 

their flag. At various points on the east and west 

coasts of Africa, English explorers, traders, and soldiers 

staked out huge claims for their country and discovered 

gold and diamond mines. 

The French were not far behind the English. They 

annexed Algiers in 1843; they added Tunis later; 




Kty^itone View Co., Inc. 
The Hoisting Machine at an African 
Diamond Mine 



IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 417 

they seized vast reaches of territory in the Sudan and 
along the Congo River ; and they got the upper hand in 
Morocco. Under French direction the Suez Canal was 
built in 1859-69. The Germans, after founding their 
empire in 1871, began to follow the example of England 
and France. Between 1884 and 1890 they laid hold 
of immense areas in Southwest and Southeast Africa. 
Meanwhile the Italians conquered Libya and a strip 
of Abyssinia. The Belgians carved out for themselves 
a large state south of the Congo River. The Portu- 
guese managed to keep a huge African territory occu- 
pied during the early days of their explorations. 

By the opening of the twentieth century, the 
dark continent, with its millions of natives, had been 
explored and divided among European commercial 
rivals. An immense trade in rubber, ivory, coffee, and 
other products was built up with Europe and America. 

European Interest in Latin America 

The Revolt of the Spanish Colonies. Owing to the 
rivalry of European nations for trade and colonies, 
it was impossible for Latin America — Mexico, Cen- 
tral America, South America, and the islands of the 
Caribbean — to escape the European invasion. At 
the opening of the nineteenth century nearly all of 
this region belonged to Spain. The most important 
exception was Brazil, which was Portuguese. 

The people of the Spanish territories consisted of 
Spaniards, many of mixed native and Spanish blood, 




f 



IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 419 

and a large population of pure native stock. The 
natives were almost wholly illiterate and had no 
knowledge of government on a large scale. Catholic 
missionaries had converted the natives to Christianity 
and Spanish soldiers had ruled them. Spanish, often 
in the form of a dialect, was their language. 

Such was the state of affairs when, in 1808, Na- 
poleon conquered Spain and placed his brother on 
the Spanish throne. This was followed by the revolt 
of the Spanish colonies in America. Beginning in 
1 8 ID, one colony after another declared its independ- 
ence. Simon Bolivar was the hero-leader in this 
South American revolution. Within a few years all 
the mainland colonies had thrown off the rule of the 
mother country. Napoleon was deposed and the old 
king of Spain was restored to his throne ; but the for- 
mer colonies clung to their newly won independence. 

Then the king of Spain talked about conquering 
them by force of arms. He asked his brother mon- 
archs in Europe to help him do it. In 1822 a congress 
of royal agents met at Verona to consider, besides other 
things, plans for putting down the rebellion in America. 

The Monroe Doctrine. The United States was 
alarmed by this conference at Verona. So also was 
England, because her merchants had built up a big 
business with the Spanish-American republics after 
they threw off the rule of Spain. The kings of Europe 
did not lend the king of Spain ships and soldiers to 
conquer his former colonies. Nevertheless the presi- 



420 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



dent of the United States, James Monroe, feared that 
they might do so. Since he knew that he had the sup- 
port of England, he gave to the world in 1823 the mes- 
sage, or doctrine, which still 
bears his name {First Book, 
pp. 192-194). He warned 
the kings of Europe against 
making any attempt to restore 
the rule of Spain or to annex 
new territories on the Amer- 
ican continents. He told them 
bluntly that such actions 
would be regarded as un- 
friendly by the United States. 
This was a clear hint that 
any attempt of that kind 
would be met, if necessary, by force of arms. 

Europe's Interest in the Monroe Doctrine. By his 
message President Monroe said, in effect, that the 
United States would protect all independent Latin- 
American states against European governments. 
This proved in time to be a serious matter for us. It 
meant that every time any of those states had a dis- 
pute with any European country, the United States 
was concerned in the affair. It meant also that all 
nations in their dealings with Latin America had to 
be on their guard against breaking the rules of the 
Monroe Doctrine. 

More than one grave result flowed from this doc- 





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OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



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trine. During the American Civil War, Napoleon 
III, the emperor of the French, took a hand in Mexi- 
can affairs. He attempted to set up one of his 
princely friends, Maximilian of Austria, as emperor 
there. When the Civil War was over, our govern- 




Keyslone View Co., Inc. 



On a South American Sheep Ranch 



ment was free to act in the case. It warned Napo- 
leon against violating the Monroe Doctrine. He took 
the warning seriously and withdrew his soldiers. He 
knew that our President was ready to send an army 
to Mexico to enforce the American policy. 

In 1895 another question was raised. England and 



IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 423 

Venezuela fell into a dispute over the boundary of 
British Guiana. Venezuela claimed that England 
was trying to get some of her territory. President 
Cleveland took up the matter and called attention 
to the Monroe Doctrine {First Book, p. 364). For 
a time it looked as if there might be war between Eng- 
land and our country ; but fortunately it was avoided 
by peaceful settlement. 

About ten years later, Germany had a quarrel with 
Venezuela over the payment of debts due her citizens 
and there was talk of war. This time President 
Roosevelt sent the German emperor a sharp warning, 
which was finally heeded. So another Latin-American 
problem was solved without resort to arms. 

Sources of Difficulty in Latin America. The chief 
concern of European countries in Mexico, Central 
America, and South America was about trade, money 
matters, and industries. European business men 
built up a profitable trade in those countries. They 
established warehouses, stores, and factories. They 
invested huge sums of money in oil wells, mines, land, 
and railways. They lent money to all the govern- 
ments and to many private companies. It was there- 
fore to their interest to see that order was maintained 
and business kept going. 

Now it happened that after the revolt against Spain 
there were many revolutions and wars in Latin 
America. Every one of them upset business and made 
it hard to collect debts. This often led European 



424 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



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IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 425 

Statesmen to say in effect : ''The United States ought 
to keep order in Latin America. If it will not do 
this, then it should allow us to protect our business 
and collect debts by force of arms if necessary." 
Thus the United States was placed in a difficult posi- 
tion. Latin America was glad to have help against 
Europe ; but it resented the idea that our govern- 
ment should interfere in any other way. The United 
States, therefore, had (i) to meet the demands of 
European business men and investors ; and (2) at 
the same time to keep the friendship of the countries 
to the south of us. 

The Caribbean. The interest of Europe in this 
hemisphere has been by no means confined to the 
mainland. It has extended to the great chain of is- 
lands which stretch almost all the way from the coast 
of Florida to the coast of Venezuela. Owing to the 
voyages of Columbus and other explorers, Spain early 
claimed all of them ; but in the course of time one 
island after another was taken away from her. Near 
the close of the nineteenth century her dominions 
consisted of only Cuba, Porto Rico, and a few minor 
islets. In 1898 came the war with the United States 
{First Book, pp. 372-375). This put an end to Span- 
ish power in the West Indies. Cuba became inde- 
pendent and Porto Rico was ceded to the United 
States. 

The fate of the other islands in the Caribbean has 
been strange indeed. Haiti went to France, one 



426 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

part In 1697 and another in 1795. While Napoleon I 
was emperor of the French, the slaves on the island 
revolted, and after a terrible struggle set up two little 
republics, Haiti and Santo Domingo. After a stormy 
career of more than one hundred years, both of them 
were brought under the direction of the United 
States by President Wilson. The Virgin Islands 
near by were bought from Denmark by the United 
States in 1917. 

In the midst of all these changes, Great Britain 
continued to hold her score or more of islands scat- 
tered all the way from the Bahamas near Florida down 
to the Windward Islands near the coast of South 
America. France also managed to retain several 
of the islands which she had acquired from time to 
time since the seventeenth century. Thus two of 
the great powers of Europe held bases for their ships 
in American waters not far from the Panama Canal 
{First Book, pp. 424-427). 

The World War — 1914-18 

The Background of the War. We have already 
seen how the chief countries of Europe engaged in 
long and terrible wars over trade and territories in 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (chapter xi). 
We have also noted how the same rivalry flamed 
up in the desperate Napoleonic wars (pp. 310- 
314). Although there was no general European war 
for a hundred years after the overthrow of Napoleon, 



IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 427 

the world was filled with local conflicts. England, 
France, Germany, Italy, and other European powers, 
as they extended their colonies in Asia and Africa, 
were almost constantly fighting natives somewhere 
in their empires. 

There were, moreover, many local wars in Europe. 
In 1854 England and France joined the Turks in a 
terrible struggle in the Crimea against Russia. Later 
France and Italy united in a military campaign to 
drive the Austrians from Italian soil. In 1866 Prussia 
fought a six weeks' war with Austria and drove her 
out of the German Confederation (p. 361). Shortly 
afterward came the Franco-Prussian War, which broke 
out in 1870 and ended in the defeat of France (p. 361). 

The Growth of German Power, Triumphant over 
France, Germany entered upon a new military and 
business career. Her industries grew by leaps and 
bounds as she extended her trade in every part of the 
globe. She developed the best equipped and most 
powerful army in the world. Her business men began 
to compete sharply with British merchants in every 
market. Germany then began to build a strong navy 
to rival Great Britain on the sea. She made an 
alliance with Austria and Italy known as the Triple 
Alliance. Austria-Hungary and Turkey were brought 
under German influence. Together they planned a 
united " Middle Europe " stretching from the banks 
of the Rhine to Constantinople. The German em- 
peror, William II (p. 392), declared that he had re- 



428 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

ceived his throne from God and warned his soldiers 
that his word was law. 

The Alliance between France and Russia. The growth 
of German power alarmed the other countries of Europe, 
especially England, France, and Russia. Taking the 
situation into account, France and Russia formed an 
alliance in 1892. They agreed, in case of an attack 
by Italy, Germany, or Austria, to join forces and to 
wage war together to the end, making no separate 
peace. The Germans looked upon this agreement as 
a menace and redoubled their military preparations. 

The Understanding between England and France. A 
few more years passed. Then England and France, 
forgetting their ancient rivalry and grudges, began to 
draw together. They did not make a formal treaty 
of alliance. The governments of the two countries 
simply ordered their military and naval experts to 
hold " consultations " as to what they would do in 
case of a war with Germany. These conferences be- 
gan in 1906. Thus there was created, as the British 
foreign minister later said, " an obligation of honor " 
to help France in case of an attack by Germany. 

The Treaty between England and Russia. The next 
year, England and Russia also laid aside their quar- 
rels. They made a treaty settling several disputed 
points without forming a regular alliance. Later, how- 
ever, British and Russian naval officers were ordered 
to discuss a combination of forces in case of a war 
with Germany. 



IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 429 

The German emperor declared at the time that Eng- 
land, Russia, and France were working for war. He 
added that Germany would take counter measures. 
This was what a large military party in Germany, 
eager for war, desired. The flames of war were just 
on the point of bursting out and setting the whole 
world on fire. 

The Outbreak. The stage of Europe was all set 
for war when on June 28, 1914, the archduke of Aus- 
tria and his wife were murdered while on a visit to 
the Austrian province of Bosnia. The archduke was 
the heir to the Austrian throne. His assassin was a 
Serb who resented the rule of the Austrians over peo- 
ple of his race (p. 371) and desired to see all Serbs 
united under Serbia. 

Austria was in great excitement at once. She ac- 
cused the Serbian government of aiding in plots de- 
signed to arouse the Serbs in Austria against their 
lawful sovereign. Austria then made humiliating de- 
mands upon Serbia. Russia, fearing the growth of 
Austrian power in southeastern Europe, encouraged 
Serbia to stand firm. Serbia, however, yielded on 
most of the demands. Still Austria, not satisfied, 
declared war on her. 

Meanwhile the German government had assured 
Austria-Hungary of its support at all costs. Russia, 
learning that the Austrians were ready for war, made 
ready her own troops. While Europe trembled on 
the brink of war, England urged a settlement of the 



430 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

quarrel at an international conference or by arbitra- 
tion. Germany refused to force this peaceful advice 
upon her ally, Austria-Hungary. 

Hearing that the Russian army was ready for war, 
the German government demanded that the czar 
send his troops home. The czar refused. There- 
upon Germany, on August i, 1914, declared war on 
Russia. France, by her ties with Russia, was also 
brought in. Germany called upon her to remain 
neutral. Knowing that Russia would thus be beaten 
and that her own turn v/ould then come, France re- 
plied that she would '' have regard for her interests." 
On August 3, Germany declared war on France. 

Belgium. Having failed to secure a peaceful set- 
tlement of the trouble between Serbia and Austria- 
Hungary, England's next steps seemed uncertain. 
At this point the German army was marching on 
France, not directly, but toward Belgium, which lay 
between Germany and the northern border of France, 
Now the chief powers of the world had, long before, 
solemnly agreed that they would regard Belgium as a 
neutral country. They had promised not to send 
armies into her territory. Germany, as well as the 
other countries, was bound by this pledge. Belgium, 
however, was an almost defenseless nation ; and the 
border between France and Belgium was lightly forti- 
fied. The Germans, therefore, decided that they 
would march through Belgium. Thus they planned 
to strike a terrific blow at France in her weakest spot 



IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 43 1 

and quickly capture Paris. They first asked per- 
mission of the Belgians, only to meet a proud refusal. 
Then they prepared to march on Belgium as an enemy. 

England and Belgium. Before invading Belgium, 
however, the Germans tried to find out what position 
England would take in the matter. The German 
ambassador in London asked the British foreign min- 
ister whether England would remain neutral if Ger- 
many did not invade Belgian territory. The British 
minister refused to bind himself, adding : *' I do not 
think that we could give a promise of neutrality on 
that condition alone." That was on August i. 

The next day, England informed France that, if 
German battleships came out into the channel to attack 
the French coast, the English navy would help protect 
it. Two days later, the English government told 
the king of Belgium that it would expect him to re- 
sist, by all means in his power, an attempt of the Ger- 
mans to enter his country. On the same day, Eng- 
land demanded of Germany that she keep out of Bel- 
gium. Germany refused and marched into Belgium, 
making war on her. On August 4, England was at 
war with Germany. 

The World War. So during the first week of 
August, 1914, the war opened. Austria-Hungary 
and Germany were lined up against England, 
France, Russia, Belgium, Serbia, and Montenegro. 
Soon Japan came to the help of its ally, England. 
Italy remained neutral until 1915, when it joined the 



432 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



powers against Germany and Austria. In the course 
of time, the war widened to include the United States, 
Rumania, China, Brazil, and other countries in the 
line-up against Germany and Austria ; while Turkey 
and Bulgaria took the part of Germany and Austria. 
The fires of war encircled the globe. The conflict, 
therefore, became known as the World War, 




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Destruction of French Coal Mines by the German Army 

The Course of the War. The German army 
plunged through Belgium into France and was checked 
only by the heroic eflforts of the French and British 
at the first battle of the Marne in September, 1914. 
It then retreated to northern France, dug trenches, 
and stood fast. 

Far in the east, the armies of Russia and Germany 
swayed forward and back until, in 1917, the Russian 
czar was overthrown by a revolution at home. Rus- 



IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 433 

sla fell into the hands of men of extreme views known 
as the Bolsheviki, who made peace with Austria and 
Germany, paying a terrible price for it. The Ger- 
mans and Austrians also overran Serbia and Rumania 
and helped the Turks to beat off the attacks by the 
British. The Italians battled in the mountains along 
their northern border against the combined forces of 
Austria and Germany. 

Never before in the history of mankind had the 
world beheld such a dreadful spectacle. Millions of 
armed men, supported by huge cannon, poison gas, 
airplanes, machine guns, armored cars or " tanks," 
and a score of other deadly weapons waged war day 
and night with awful carnage. For nearly three years 
they kept it up without reaching a decision. Then 
the sword of the United States was thrown into the 
scale. 

America and the World War. As in the case of 
the Napoleonic wars a hundred years before (p. 
314, and First Book, pp. 181-187), American trade 
on the sea was disturbed by the war in Europe. 
England's navy at the outset blockaded the coast of 
Germany and cut off her commerce at sea, including 
of course her trade with the United States. Germany 
protested against the British blockade. The United 
States also objected to certain features of it. 

Then Germany startled the world by declaring 
that her submarines would sink ships, passengers, 
and crews engaged in trade with her enemies. Against 



434 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

this policy, President Wilson protested vigorously but 
without success. German submarines sank American 
ships and took American lives. 

America's answer all the world knows. In April, 
1917, the United States entered the war against Ger- 
many. More than two million American soldiers 
crossed the sea to France ; American ships joined in 
the hunt for submarines. American sailors and sol- 
diers fought bravely on the battlefield and on the sea. 
General John J. Pershing commanded our army in 
France. 

The End of War. Against such a union of forces 
as were now brought into the field, Germany and 
Austria-Hungary battled in vain. The French, Eng- 
lish, and American forces on the French front, under 
General Foch, drove against the Germans with over- 
whelming might. The Italians kept up the fight on 
their front also. 

In the summer of 1918, the Germans began to give! 
way. In October the Austrians sued for peace. In 
November the Germans became panic-stricken. The 
German government in the hour of defeat also begged j 
for peace. On November 11 a truce was signed. 
The long and deadly war was at an end. The German 
emperor was forced to give up the throne and flee 
into Holland. Then a revolution transformed his em- 
pire into a republic. 

The Treaty of Peace. — The final terms of the 
peace were drawn up at Paris and signed in 1919. 



IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 435 



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436 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

President Wilson went there in person to take part in 
the conference. In fact, Woodrow Wilson, president 
of the United States, Lloyd George, the British prime 
minister, Georges Clemenceau, the French premier, 
and Vittorio Orlando, the Italian prime minister, were 
the leading figures in the grand congress of victors 
that decided the fate of Germany, Austria-Hungary, 
and their allies. 

In the general settlement, Germany was disarmed ; 
her battleships were taken from her ; she was ordered 
to pay a huge indemnity for the damage she had 
wrought ; and she was forced to give Alsace-Lorraine 
back to France. 

Austria-Hungary was broken up and the several 
races under its rule were given independence (below, 
chapter xvii). Italy secured from Austria a large strip 
of territory along the Adriatic Sea. 

The German colonies in Africa were turned over 
to England and France. The German islands in the 
Pacific Ocean north of the equator were placed under 
the control of Japan. German rights in China were 
also given to Japan, much to the discontent of the 
Chinese, to whom they originally belonged. 

French, English, Belgian, and American troops en- 
tered Germany to hold certain towns and provinces 
until the terms of the treaty should be fulfilled. 

Finally, under the leadership of President Wilson, ' 
a plan to unite all the countries of the world in a League \ 
of Nations was included in the treaty. Its purpose i 




Europe 




^D War 



IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 437 




IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 439 

was to prevent wars and settle disputes by peaceful 
methods. 

Although the other countries in the World War, 
except China, ratified the treaty of 1919 with Ger- 
many, the United States rejected it. The Senate 
refused to approve it even with amendments. In 
the presidential campaign of 1920, the Republican 
candidate, Warren G. Harding, strongly denounced 
the League of Nations. After he became President, 
he refused to have anything to do with it. In the 
summer of 192 1 Congress by a simple resolution de- 
clared the war with Germany and Austria-Hungary 
at an end. A few months later brief treaties were 
made with Germany and Austria-Hungary. 

Questions and Exercises 

I. I. What is meant by the word rivalry? Can you find 
examples of rivalry among the merchants of your own town .? 
What rivalries are there between your town and neighboring 
towns .? What are some of the good things about rivalry ? What 
are some of the dangers ? 2. In what ways did the growth of 
industry increase the rivalry among modern nations? 3. How 
did the growth of democracy influence this rivalry .^ 4. The 
text states that the spirit of nationalism increased rivalry. Can 
you think of any way in which the rivalry may also have intensi- 
fied the spirit of nationalism? 5. Why is the rivalry among 
nations which is discussed in this chapter called "imperial" 
rivalry ? 

II. I. Why did the European nations wish to trade with China 
and Japan ? 2. A certain amount of trade with these countries 
had been carried on by European merchants in early times (see 



440 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

ch. viii). What reasons may China and Japan have had for 
wishing to stop trade with Europe ? 3. How was trade reopened 
with China ? With Japan ? 4. What effect did trade with 
Europe have upon Japan? Why was the effect on China so dif- 
ferent? 5. What important differences have there been be- 
tween the policy of our country toward China and the policies of 
the European nations ? 

in. I. What reasons can you give that will explain why 
''Africa was the last of the great continents to be explored and 
seized by the European powers " ? 2. What led David Living- 
stone to explore central Africa ? What different motives did the 
European nations have in beginning their "general scramble to 
get African territory" ? 3- In what ways would European trade 
with central Africa differ from European trade with China and 
Japan ? 4. For what other purposes besides trade may the 
European nations have wished to secure African territory ? 
(Think of the growing populations of these nations and limited 
space in which they had to grow.) 

IV. I. What is meant by Latin America? What countries 
are included under this term ? 2. How did the rule of Spain 
on the American continent differ from the English colonial rule ? 
3. When the English colonies became independent they established 
a single nation ; when the Spanish colonies threw off the rule of 
Spain they formed several independent nations. Can you think 
of any reasons that will explain this difference ? 4. Why was 
the United States alarmed by the conference at Verona ? What 
danger to this country would there have been in the reconquest 
of the Latin-American colonies by Spain ? 5. The Monroe 
Doctrine states a very important "policy" of the United States. 
What are some of the differences between a policy and a law f 
What other important American policy has already been referred 
to in this chapter ? Perhaps you can think of other policies that 
our country has adopted. 6. What problems has the Monroe 
Doctrine given rise to in connection with our relations to European 



IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 441 

nations ? What difficulties have we had with the Latin-American 
countries themselves because of this doctrine ? 7. What ter- 
ritories are Included under the term Caribbean ? What possessions 
does the United States now hold in the Caribbean ? 8. With 
the exception of Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and Porto Rico, the islands 
of the Caribbean are small and not very Important for purposes of 
trade. Why, then, would European nations wish to hold these 
islands as colonial possessions ? 

V. I. How many years elapsed between the close of the Na- 
poleonic wars and the opening of the World War ? 2. What 
important conflicts among European nations took place during 
these years ? 3. Review the differences between the government 
of Germany before the war and the governments of England, 
France, and Italy (ch. xv). Which of the three kinds of govern- 
ment would be most likely to develop a desire for war and to 
prepare for a war of conquest ? Why ? 4. Why did the growth 
of German power alarm England, France, and Russia ? What 
steps did they take to meet the danger ? What effect did their 
action have upon Germany? 5. What was the Immediate cause 
of the outbreak in 1914 ? Why did Russia stand by Serbia in her 
trouble with Austria ? 6. What brought France into the con- 
flict ? 7. The German invasion of Belgium was an act that had 
a great deal to do with setting the civilized world against her. 
Why was this act so strongly denounced even by neutral nations t 

8. What effect did the invasion of Belgium have upon England t 

9. The battle of the Marne will probably be known for centu- 
ries to come as one of the decisive battles of history. Why "i 

10. What finally led the United States to take part in the war ? 
With what result? 11. Discuss the Important settlements 
decided upon by the Peace Conference. Why did the people of 
the United States refuse to ratify the peace treaty and to join the 
League of Nations? 12. What important revolutions took 
place during the war and immediately after ? Can you give any 
reasons for these revolutions ? 



442 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Geographical Studies 

I. If possible, secure a copy of a textbook in geography that was 
printed before 1919. Compare the maps of Europe, Africa, the 
Caribbean region, and South America with the corresponding 
maps on pp. 415, 418, and 421 and facing p. 436 of this book. 
What new countries do you find as a result of the W^orld War .? 
Make a summary of the other changes that you observe. Com- 
pare this summary with those that you find in your regular text- 
book in geography if that has been printed since 1919. 

Suggestions for Reading 

Benezet — The Map of Europe, xiii-xxi. 

Benezet, L. p. — Young People's History of the World War ; 

Macmillan. 
O'Neill — The Story of the World, xlvi, xlvii. 

Suggestions for Review of Chapters XIII-XVI 

1. These chapters have told the story of three great develop- 
ments of the modern world: (a) democracy; (b) industry; 
(c) nationalism. An important event in the growth of democracy 
was the French revolution. Another was the enactment of the 
"reform" bills in England. Name as many other important 
events associated with the modern development of democracy as 
you can find in your review of these chapters. In the same way, 
make lists of the important events that mark the growth of in- 
dustry and of nationalism. 

2. The period of nearly a century and a half covered by these 
chapters has witnessed many political revolutions. Draw a line 
six feet long on the blackboard to represent the years between 
1789 and the present time. Mark at the proper places on this 
line the years when important political revolutions have taken 
place. 



IMPERIAL RIVALRY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS 443 

3. Under the line just mentioned draw another line of the same 
length representing the same period, and place marks indicating the 
important wars. How does the position of the marks indicating 
revolutionary years compare with that of the marks indicating 
the war years ? 

4. Make a list of all the persons mentioned in these four chapters. 
Try to group these persons under the following heads : (a) heads of 
nations (including kings, emperors, and presidents) ; (b) statesmen 
or political leaders ; (c) military and naval leaders ; (d) sci- 
entists ; (e) inventors ; (/) leaders in social reforms ; (g) writ- 
ers ; (h) explorers. Perhaps you will find some that should be 
placed in more than one group. Pick out those in each group 
who, in your judgment, best deserve to be remembered because 
of the good that they have done for humanity. Vote on the five 
that you would like best to know more about and have committees 
appointed to make the class well acquainted with these persons 
and their work. 



CHAPTER XVII 

EUROPE IN OUR OWN TIME 

The treaty that closed the World War did not bring 
peace among the nations of Europe. Neither did it 
give contentment to the people of the various coun- 
tries engaged in the war. The conflict had been so 
long and so bitter that the world could not settle down 
in quiet at once. All the nations of the earth had 
been deeply stirred by the struggle. A score of kings 
and princes had been overthrown. In central Europe 
new republics had been established in place of former 
monarchies. Millions of men had been killed or 
wounded. Women had been made widows. Chil- 
dren had been orphaned. Business had been turned 
mainly to the making of supplies for war. It could 
not be turned back in a day to a peace basis. Heavy 
debts had been created. Someone had to pay them ; 
so taxes were increased almost to the limit of endur- 
ance. It was clear that it would take years to bring 
Europe out of the distress into which it had fallen. 

The Domestic Affairs of the Nations 
The German Revolution of 1918. Among the 
important results of the war was the collapse of the 

444 



EUROPE IN OUR OWN TIME 



445 



German empire — the empire which had been pro- 
claimed with such pomp in 1871. When it was clear 
that the German army was defeated on the field of 
battle, a revolutionary government was formed in 




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German Soldiers and Civilians Cheering the Declaration of the 
Republic in November, 1918 

Berlin. The kaiser, as we have seen (p. 434), was 
forced to flee from the realm. All the kings, princes, 
and dukes who ruled in the states of the former em- 
pire were likewise overthrown. The next year, after 
a long debate, a new constitution was adopted in Ger- 



446 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

many. The first article declared that '' the German 
empire is a republic. Political power springs from the 
people." Provision was made for a president and a 
parliament, both elected by the German people, women 
as well as men having the vote. During the same 
crisis, new constitutions were drafted for the several 
German states. Each one of them was made a re- 
public and given a popular form of government. 
Even Prussia became democratic. 

The Revolution in Russia. Far more disturbing 
to the rest of the world than the upheaval in Germany 
was the collapse of the Russian empire. As we have 
seen, the czar narrowly escaped losing his throne in 
the misery that grew out of the war with Japan. Dur- 
ing the World War he finally met his fate. In 1917 
popular discontent in Russia broke out in riots. An 
attempt was made to create a parliament on the Eng- 
lish model. In a short time the discontent grew 
into a revolution. The czar was deposed and after- 
ward murdered. 

The effort to establish a republic along American 
lines failed. All power was seized by committees, or 
Soviets, of soldiers, sailors, peasants, and workingmen. 
These committees were controlled by the Bolsheviki 
(p. 433). In the name of the working class they took 
possession of the government offices, the railways, 
factories, private houses, land, and other property. 
They decreed : (i) that all lands, mills, mines, and 
forests should belong to the government and (2) that 




447 



448 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

all should work for the government. This scheme is 
called communism because all things are owned and 
used in common. As we have seen (p. 94), this was 
an idea sometimes discussed by the Greeks. Plato 
argued in its favor. Aristotle advanced strong argu- 
ments against it. All through the centuries it was 
discussed, and some attempts were made to put it into 
practice, but without success. 

Under the leadership of two men, Lenine and 
Trotzky, the Bolsheviki, though a small minority of 
the Russian nation, managed to control the govern- 
ment. They used the army to put down opposi- 
tion. They suppressed all criticism. They impris- 
oned or executed those who rose against them. 

Though the Bolsheviki claimed to have nothing 
but the interest of the people at heart, they were un- 
able to bring prosperity to Russia. The peasants in- 
sisted on owning the soil they tilled ; so that point in 
the communist program had to be given up. After 
the Bolsheviki had driven out the capitalists and man- 
agers of factories, they found that they did not know 
how to run the business concerns themselves. They 
were unable to supply the people with manufactured 
goods. Their troubles were made worse because 
several other countries, including the United States, 
refused to trade with them because it was uncertain 
whether foreign property would be protected and just 
debts paid. To all these difficulties were added wars 
and famines. Several Russian generals raised armies 



EUROPE IN OUR OWN TIME 449 

and attempted to overthrow the Bolsheviki. In this 
effort some of the generals had the aid of England, 
France, and the United States. 

In fact, there was widespread alarm among all 
other nations. They strongly upheld the right of 




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private persons to own farms, houses, factories, mines, 
and other property. The Bolsheviki appealed to the 
workingmen of the world to unite^ to overthrow their 
governments, and to establish communism on the 
Russian model. In many parts of Europe working- 
men gave heed to this appeal and tried to seize the 



450 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

factories. In Germany and Hungary, especially, these 
attempts resulted in much bloodshed. Though they 
were put down, they left behind many traces of 
bitterness. 

Meanwhile, the Bolsheviki in Russia still held 
to the government. In many ways, however, they 
changed their tactics. They let the peasants keep 
their land. They called back managers to run the 
factories. They admitted that for one reason or an- 
other their plans had not brought prosperity to Rus- 
sia and prepared to change them. In time Eng- 
land, Germany, and Italy began to trade again with 
Russia. When a great crop failure in 192 1 led to a 
terrible famine, the people of the United States gave 
millions of dollars to aid the starving Russians.- ^:^ . 

New Republics Formed from Russia. In addi- 
tion to undergoing a revolution, the empire of the czar 
was broken into many parts. Four new states on the 
Baltic — Finland, Esthonia, Lithuania, and Latvia — 
were made independent republics. Far to the south, 
beyond the Caucasus mountains, Georgia and other 
provinces were freed from the dominion of the Russian 
government. Away to the east, a part of Siberia 
broke off and carried on its own government as if en- 
tirely independent. 

The Collapse of Austria-Hungary. In the general 
overturn that followed the World War, the Austro- 
Hungarian empire also went to pieces. It had been, as 
we have seen (pp. 356, 371), a strange array of many 



EUROPE IN OUR OWN TIME 451 

peoples held together by the power of the Hapsburgs. 
In the name of " nationalism " several of the subject 
races had long clamored for independence. After 
the United States declared war on Austria-Hungary, 
President Wilson announced that all the peoples ruled 
by the Hapsburg emperor should have the right to 
choose their own destiny " as members of the family 
of nations." That was the same as saying that Aus- 
tria-Hungary should be broken up. 

That is what happened when the Austrians and 
Hungarians were beaten. The Rumanians in Hun- 
gary were joined with their kinsmen across the border 
in Rumania. Czechoslovaks were united in a re- 
public under the presidency of a patriotic leader, 
Thomas Masaryk. To the south, the Italians were 
transferred from Austria to Italy ; while the southern 
Slavic peoples were merged with Serbia in the great 
state of Yugoslavia. Hungary, much reduced in 
territory, was made independent. Austria was 
brought down to the level of a petty state with about 
seven million German inhabitants. The peace con- 
ference did not permit the Austrians to join the Ger- 
man republic. 

The break-up of Austria and Hungary brought 
about domestic troubles of the gravest kind. Aus- 
tria, cut off from her former provinces and burdened 
by debt, sank into poverty. Hungary went through 
a revolutionary crisis. It first fell into the hands of 
a communist party like that in Russia, and later 



452 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



Into the hands of a military dictator. It was then 
disturbed by an attempt of the former ruler, Charles, 
to recover his throne — an attempt that ended in 
failure. 

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Austro-Hungarian empire quarreled with one another. 
They suffered from business panics. The great impe- 
rial network of railways was broken up. Tariffs were 
levied on goods passing between separate countries. 
Separate systems of coinage were established. Indus- 
tries suffered. It remains to be seen whether the 



EUROPE IN OUR OWN TIME 453 

nationalism that brought self-government can also 
bring peace and prosperity. 

The Rebirth of Poland. In the general crash of 
191 8, the hopes of Poland rose. The independence 
of that country had been utterly blotted out since 
the eighteenth century. In three " partitions " be- 
ginning in 1772, Russia, Austria, and Prussia fell upon 
Poland and divided the country among themselves. 
The Poles resisted heroically. The brave Kosciusko, 
who fought for American independence under Wash- 
ington, led in one of the desperate struggles for liberty 
in his own country, but was overcome by superior 
numbers. Again and again the Poles tried to free 
themselves. Finally their opportunity came in the 
defeat of two of their historic enemies — Austria and 
Germany — and in the collapse of the third, Russia. 
President Wilson included among his '' Fourteen 
Points " (First Book, p. 444) the independence of 
Poland. At the peace conference in Paris, the dream 
of Kosciusko was realized. The Poles were united 
and given a place among the nations. 

The Balkan Region. All southeastern Europe, the 
source of so much trouble to the world, was likewise 
greatly changed by the World War. The Serbs and 
their kinsmen were united in the kingdom of Yugo- 
slavia, as we have said (p. 451). Rumania was en- 
larged by additions of territory from Hungary and 
Russia. The Turks lost nearly all their territory in 
Europe. They were allowed to keep their capital at 



454 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 




EUROPE IN OUR OWN TIME 455 

Constantinople, but the Bosporus was put under the 
control of an international commission. The Greeks 
recalled their king, who had been driven out during 
the war, and revised their plan of government. 

The Revolt of the Irish. Seeing the Poles, Finns, 
and other races of Europe receive their independence, 
the Irish became more determined than ever to throw 
off the rule of Great Britain. They had been con- 
quered by English armies centuries before, but they 
had always chafed against their forced union with 
England. A large party among the Irish people had 
demanded self-government or " home rule " as early 
as 1828, and the idea was steadily kept alive. 

After several generations of argument and dispute, 
the English government was about to grant a certain 
kind of home rule when the World War broke out. 
While the war was on, a party known as Sinn Fein 
(pronounced " Shin Fane " and meaning " Ourselves ") 
came out boldly for independence. It declared Ire- 
land to be a free republic. It elected a provisional 
president, Eamonn de Valera. It sent him to America 
to get support. Americans, so many of whom are 
of Irish descent, were much moved by monster public 
meetings. Irish sympathizers even asked Congress to 
recognize the Irish republic. 

Meanwhile Ireland was the scene of dreadful strife. 
England refused to recognize the republic and sent 
soldiers to put it down. At the same time a conflict 
arose in Ireland itself. The northern part of the is- 



456 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



land had been settled long ago by immigrants from 
England and Scotland who had never favored home 
rule or independence. Moreover, there were some 
of the native Irish who did not approve of independ- 





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ence. Thus there were really two wars in Ire- 
land — one between English soldiers and the Sinn 
Fein ; the other between the friends and the enemies of 
independence. The long strife was attended by all 
the horrors of irregular warfare. Murders and counter- 
murders hlled the island with misery. 



EUROPE IN OUR OWN TIME 457 

Weary at last of the bitter conflict, both parties 
were ready to consider terms in 192 1. Lloyd George 
(p. 436) invited an Irish delegation to London to dis- 
cuss the matter. On December 6 they signed an 
agreement establishing the Irish Free State. It was 
understood that Ireland was to be one of " the 
group of nations forming the British commonwealth 
of nations." The British and Irish parliaments soon 
approved the agreement signed at London, and thus it 
seemed that an age-long quarrel was to be settled 
peaceably. However, the Irish people were divided 
over the question of accepting the agreement. 

Debts, Taxes, and Money. Every European 
country came out of the World War staggering under 
a burden of debt and taxes. England owed about 
^3 J 500,000,000 in 1914 and something like ^40,000,- 
000,000 in 1919. Taxes were likewise increased, until 
in the case of the very rich the government took 
more than one third of their net income. At the out- 
break of the war, the national debt of Italy was reck- 
oned at ^2.90 for every man, woman, and child in 
the kingdom. At the close of the war the debt stood 
at about ^11 each. This was a terrible burden. To 
pay the interest on this debt, the Italian parliament 
had to resort to heavy taxes. In fact, taxes were laid 
on nearly everything. There were, for example, taxes 
on hotel bills, on articles of luxury, and on clothes, 
as well as on houses, lands, and Incomes. The Ger- 
mans had. In addition to the cost of their war, the 



458 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

obligation of paying billions of dollars to the victors 
to meet the heavy damages done during the war. 

In short, every European country was very much 
like a person who has most of his belongings in a pawn 
shop and little prospect of ever getting them out 
again. Furthermore, they had all issued great quan- 
tities of paper money. Silver and gold were driven 
out of circulation except in England and paper 
bills took their places. The money of Europe, as 
measured in American dollars, fell in value until the 
results were absurd. The Russian ruble, once worth 
fifty cents, dropped steadily until it took several hun- 
dred to equal one cent. The German mark, once 
reckoned at twenty-five cents, fell below a half of a 
cent. The Italian lire, worth twenty cents before the 
war, was worth less than four cents in 192 1. This, 
of course, made it extremely difficult for the countries 
having money of such low value to trade with the 
United States. They could not afford to buy Ameri- 
can goods. This helped to bring on a business depres- 
sion in our own country. 

International Relations 

The Armed Peace. The close of the World War 
diminished none of the ancient grudges of Europe. 
Indeed it left most of the old ones still intact, and 
added many new ones. It brought no end to the huge 
expenditures for war purposes. German}^, it is true, 
was forcibly disarmed ; but France, fearing a revival 



EUROPE IN OUR OWN TIME 459 

of German power, kept an immense standing army. 
England and Japan continued to enlarge their navies 
(p. 428). Russia kept a great army ready for any emer- 
gency. The new republics created out of Russia and 
Austria-Hungary quarreled with one another over 
boundaries and many other matters. The Greeks and 
Turks immediately began to fight over territory. The 
Poles and Russians fought for a variety of reasons. 
The Germans began to write and publish books about 
'' the next war." In short, instead of putting an end 
to war, the peace signed at Paris seemed to be more 
like a truce than a final settlement. 

Trade Hampered by Rivalries. The new states 
created by the war began at once to put up tariffs 
against goods from neighboring states. In the old 
days, one could travel from the French to the Russian 
border by passing through only one country. After 
the war it was necessary to go through three or four. 
This meant that at every frontier travelers had their 
baggage searched. Since free trade among the peo- 
ples of Europe was hampered by so many barriers, 
business was bad everywhere. Some countries could 
not get raw materials and had to close their factories. 
In other countries mills were shut down because the 
output could not be sold. In general, Europe sank 
into a distressing state. There was unemployment 
and poverty for working people and ruin for capitalists 
and business men. In short, Europe was " sick " 
and apparently could not find a way to get well again. 



460 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

The United States and Demoralized Europe. Af- 
ter the war was over, the United States withdrew 
nearly all its soldiers from Europe. Only a few thou- 
sand were left in Germany awaiting the final settle- 
ment. At the same time, the United States refused 
to join the League of Nations formed at Paris in 1919, 
and made a separate peace with Germany and Austria 
in 1 92 1 (p. 439). It looked as if our country were try- 
ing to withdraw as rapidly as possible from Euro- 
pean affairs. 

Complete withdrawal, however, was impossible. In 
the first place, our former associates in the war, 
especially England and France, owed us billions of 
dollars borrowed during the struggle. Years passed 
by and still they did not arrange to pay interest or 
principal. How and when they could pay became a 
serious problem. They did not have the gold with 
which to pay. If they paid in goods, that would mean 
" dumping " manufactured articles into America to 
the injury of American industries. 

In addition to this huge war debt, Europe owed 
private American capitalists immense sums. Nearly 
all the countries of the Old World had turned to 
America for money. France had borrowed huge 
sums here. So had Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, and 
Denmark. Even European cities, like Paris, Berne, 
and several Danish towns, had borrowed from 
American bankers. Whenever one of the loans fell 
due, it was customary to float another loan in America 



EUROPE IN OUR OWN TIME 461 

to get money to pay it. Often seven or eight per cent 
interest was charged on such loans, whereas most 
Liberty Bonds drew only four and one quarter per cent. 
To help the business of money lending, branches of 
American banks were opened in England, France, 
and other countries. In this way the United States, 
which had once borrowed money in Europe to develop 
its lands and factories, now became the banker for 
Europe. 

The United States was also affected by the state 
of European trade. Before the World War, America 
sold goods to the annual value of about ^1,500,000,000 
in Europe. During the war, the exports, mainly 
war materials and supplies for the armies, multiplied 
threefold — this in spite of the fact that business 
with Austria and Germany was stopped altogether. 
After the war came a great '' slump." The demand 
for war supplies was cut off entirely. The European 
countries, in debt and impoverished, could not buy 
heavily in American markets. American trade with 
Russia disappeared almost entirely. Trade with Ger- 
many, once running into the hundreds of millions 
each year, could not quickly be restored to its former 
importance. 

All these things working together seriously hurt 
American business. Factories and mills cut down 
their output, turned off numbers of their employees, 
and in many instances shut up entirely. Thus in 
peace, as in war, it was seen that the state of affairs 



462 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

in Europe was a matter of concern to America. Once 
again it was made clear that America does not live to 
herself alone. The price of wheat in the warehouses 
of Minneapolis, the wages of New England factory 
workers, and the earnings of Southern cotton planters 
depend in a large measure upon the business pros- « 
perity of the world. ^ 

The Orient. Events in the Far East made this 
dependence still plainer. Japan came out of the con- 
flict richer and more powerful than ever. She had 
crushed one of her great rivals, Germany, and had 
seized German property and privileges in China. She 
was further strengthened by the downfall of Rus- 
sia, another serious rival. Thus Japan had a free 
hand in extending her trade on the mainland of Asia. 
Having learned from the World War the importance 
of a strong navy, Japan laid out a great program for 
increasing the number of her battleships. United 
with Great Britain by an alliance, Japan prepared to 
become the ruler of the Orient. She announced a 
sort of Monroe Doctrine to the eflPect that everything 
Oriental was mainly her affair. Thus the slumber- 
ing nation which the United States had helped to 
awaken more than fifty years before had become one 
of the first powers of the world. 

The rise of Japanese power brought new problems 
for the United States. Japan claimed the right to 
direct affairs in weak and disorderly China, where the 
citizens of many countries, including Americans, had 



EUROPE IN OUR OWN TIME 



463 



trade, factories, railways, and mines. With the in- 
crease of her navy and the growth of her population, 
Japan became very sensitive about the treatment 
of her citizens in foreign countries. Especially did 
she resent their exclusion from the United States and 
from Australia. This was very embarrassing. It dis- 
turbed Japan's close ally. Great Britain, because Aus- 




Key stone View Co., Inc. 



A Modern Iron Mill in China 



tralia is a part of the British empire. It raised 
alarm in the United States, for the Americans had 
firmly made up their minds to exclude the Japanese. 
The eyes of the world, therefore, became fixed on the 
Pacific Ocean, where three great nations, Japan, Eng- 
land, and the United States, had vital interests and 
China was trying to defend herself. 



464 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

The Great International Conference at Washing- ^ 
ton. In view of this state of affairs, President ^ 
Harding, in 1921, invited England, France, Italy, 
Japan, Belgium, The Netherlands, Portugal, and China 
to send delegates to Washington to discuss ways and 
means of settling disputes in the Pacific and of cutting 
down expenditures for armies and navies. They all 
eagerly accepted the invitation. Their eagerness 
showed that they, too, were alarmed over the plight 
of mankind and wished to find some way to a better 
understanding among the nations. It was a historic 
moment when, in November, 192 1, the ministers of 
these nations met in Washington to consider the 
fate of the world. Mr. Hughes, our Secretary of State, 
startled every one by proposing an immediate reduc- 
tion in the navies of the leading countries. This 
promised to cut down the heavy expenses for naval 
armaments. Many of the troublesome questions con- 
nected with China and the islands of the Pacific were 
discussed at great length with a view to keeping the 
peace in the Far East. 

Before the conference closed in February, 1922, 
many important steps had been taken. The leading 
powers agreed to limit the number of their warships for 
a period of ten years. England, France, Japan, and 
the United States signed a ''four power" treaty prom- 
ising to respect one another's islands in the Pacific 
and to hold conferences when serious disputes arose 
over them. The alliance between England and Japan 



EUROPE IN OUR OWN TIME 465 

was publicly dissolved. The powers agreed to limit 
the use of submarines and poison gas in warfare. Ja- 
pan bound herself to give Shantung back to China on 
certain conditions. The independence of China was 
guaranteed ; equal rights to trade in China were pro- 
claimed. After they were drawn up, these treaties 
were laid before the various countries concerned for 
approval. 

The conference showed how deeply America was 
involved in world affairs. Hereafter other countries 
will write an American background to their history. 

Questions and Exercises 

I. I. Our study of previous wars has taught us that a long 
conflict is likely to be followed by a period of reaction. In what 
ways was the World War of 1914-18 more serious than any war in 
the past .? Why were the difficulties of a satisfactory settlement 
much greater than in other wars ? 2. What changes took place 
in the government of Germany as a result of the German revolu- 
tion of 191 8 ^ 3. How did the results of the Russian revolution 
differ from those of the German revolution .? 4. What is meant 
by "communism" ? It is generally agreed that communism in 
Russia has been a most disastrous failure. W^hy would communism 
be likely to fail in any great modern nation ^ 5. The government 
of Russia under the Bolshevlkl is, in theory, a government by the 
working classes, farmers, laborers, and factory workers. In your 
judgment, is this true democracy ? Give reasons for your answer. 
In actual practice, the government by the Bolshevlkl, most people 
believe, has not been even a government by the working people, 
but really a government by a very small group of men. Why 
would popular government of any sort be difficult to establish in 
Russia .? (Think of the size of the country and remember that 



466 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

more than half of the people are unable to read.) 6. How were 
the Polish people divided in 1772 ? In what way did the decision 
of the Peace Conference in 1919 "realize the dream of Kosciusko" ? 
7. Why should the nations of western Europe object to Turkish 
control of the Bosporus ? What have they done to prevent such 
control ? 8. How did the Irish Free States come into existence ? 
What other countries belong to the " British Commonwealth of 
Nations" ? What important British possessions are still not 
parts of this commonwealth ? 9. W^hat is meant by a " national 
debt" ? From whom did our country borrow money during the 
World War ? In what ways do the national debts of the European 
countries resemble our national debt ? Do they differ in any 
important respect ? What is meant by interest on a debt? How 
is the interest on our national debt paid ? What is the diflFerence 
between the principal of a debt and the interest ? 10. We use 
paper money in this country, but not the kind of paper money 
that the European countries have issued. What is the difference .? 
Do you know of any occasion when our government issued paper 
money similar to that which is now used by the European nations ^ 
II. I. Why is the period following the Peace Conference re- 
ferred to as one of "armed peace" ^ 2. In what ways would 
the formation of so many new nations make trade among the 
European countries difficult ? 3. How has the poverty of Europe 
affected our country .? 4. What events led to the calling of the 
Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armaments, and 
what were the Important results of this conference ^ 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE CULTURE OF THE MODERN AGE 

What a marvelous sweep there is in the history of 
mankind from the stone age to the age of electricity ! 
The record opens with the poor and almost helpless 
cave man cowering before the lightning's flash ; it 
closes with Marconi harnessing electricity to send mes- 
sages around the world by the wireless telegraph. The 
primitive herdsman counts his flock by notches on 
a stick ; the modern mathematician measures the 
93,000,000 miles between the earth and the sun and 
reckons the time that it takes light to fly to our 
planet from the most distant star. 

The primitive tribes of ancient days looked upon ha- 
tred of their neighbors as the greatest virtue and waged 
endless wars on one another. Modern nations do not 
consider all foreigners " barbarians " as did the Greeks ; 
nor do they look upon constant warfare as natural and 
necessary. They are eager to exchange goods and ideas 
and to welcome travelers. Though wars continue to 
plague mankind, there are millions of people all over 
the earth who are laboring to find a plan for ending that 
savage way of settling quarrels. The history of man- 
kind is indeed a wonderful story. In spite of many 

467 



468 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

sad, dark pages, it reveals to us a growth of human 
powers that fills us with awe. Moreover, it inspires 
us to act well our part in our day, so that the future 
may be more splendid than the past. 

The Preceding Ages and Modem Times Contrasted. 
The story is all one, though we have divided it, for 
convenience, into ancient, medieval, and modern times. 
The beginnings of most of our ideas may be traced 
back through the middle ages to the nations of an- 
tiquity, as we have seen. Still the modern age presents 
some very clear contrasts to the ages that preceded it : 

1. We know, for one thing, a vast deal more about 
the world — about the earth at our feet, the hills that 
tower above us, the stars that shine down upon us, 
and life around us — than did our remote ancestors. 
Medieval learning was mainly religious. It had to do 
with the world to come ; and the priests, or clergy, 
were the only learned class. Modern learning deals 
chiefly with this world. In the modern age we have 
thousands of teachers, scholars, and scientists who are 
not clergymen. 

2. In the modern age too — and this is very impor- 
tant — knowledge is far more widely distributed among 
the people than in the former ages. Schools, museums, 
newspapers, books, magazines, lectures, motion pictures, 
and the radio convey to the masses the information 
that was once limited to a mere handful of students. 

3. The modern age is a '' progressive " age. In 
medieval times, there was little change in the way 



THE CULTURE OF THE MODERN AGE 469 

people lived and worked. The idea of constant im- 
provement in implements, tools, machines, business 
methods, home comforts, and travel was not the lead- 
ing idea. To-day, in every field, " improvement " is 
the most striking watchword. 

4. In the modern age, literature, art, science, and 
opportunity are not for the privileged few only, but 
for the many. Any one, man or woman, boy or girl, 
who has talent may choose almost any calling. Even 
the old ideal that every person who worked at any of 
the arts should first be trained in ancient models has 
been scornfully, too scornfully, rejected. 

In the modern age a writer or artist may pick his 
own subjects. He is not dependent, as in ancient 
Egypt, upon the whim of a king or, as in the middle ages, 
entirely upon the taste of some rich person. The mar- 
ket, so to speak, is now very wide and varied. There 
are newspapers, magazines, and publishers eager to 
discover new genius. There are hundreds of institu- 
tions for training. There are scholarships, prizes, and 
exhibits which permit those with special abilities to 
pursue the lines of work for which they are fitted. 

Modern Knowledge 

Its Variety. The range of modern knowledge is 
very wide. We have only to take up a good encyclo- 
pedia and run through its thousands of topics in order 
to see how many things have been carefully studied. 
The variety is always increasing. Fresh topics are be- 



470 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

ing added daily. An encyclopedia grows out of date 
in a few years, nay, in a few months. Think of the 
topics that were not included at all fifty years ago, 
such as airplanes, wireless telegraphy, radio telephones, 
automobiles, and gas engines, to mention only a few. 

Our knowledge is not only more varied ; it is more 
accurate and can be more safely depended on. In 
many of the medieval histories all kinds of rumor and 
idle tales were set down as gospel truth by the old 
chroniclers. To-day great efforts are being made to 
write histories that present facts rather than rumor. 
Compare, too, the geography that any present-day 
school child may have with the poor collection of maps 
that Columbus owned. Columbus knew very little 
about lands outside of western Europe, and much that 
he believed was wrong. For a small sum one may buy 
a geography to-day that plots out with painstaking 
accuracy and describes clearly the most distant lands, 
seas, islands, and rivers. It tells us not only about the 
shape of the continents, but also about the peoples of 
various lands, their occupations, the climate, soil, and 
products. The modern world knows far more than 
the middle ages and what it knows is more accurate. 
It even knows more of the middle ages themselves 
than the wisest men then living knew. 

Natural Science. It is in the field of natural sci- 
ence especially that the modern times show the greatest 
progress. Even in the oldest science, astronomy, won- 
derful steps have been taken. Men like Galileo, Co- 



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pernicus, and Newton revealed to mankind the starry 
heavens and their laws, the revolution of the planets 
and the orbits of the comets. 

Ever since the seventeenth century startling prog- 
ress has been made in every field of medicine. William 
Harvey, in 1628, published his great book showing 
the working of the human heart and the circulation 
of the blood through the body. Diseases which were 



472 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



once thought hopeless can now be cured. The surgeon 
can perform delicate operations without torturing his 
patient. Such scourges as smallpox and yellow fever 
have been almost entirely stamped out. Ways have 
been found to control diphtheria and typhoid fever. 

Fewer persons die 
in infancy and child- 
hood, and many 
more live to old age. 
In chemistry, the 
discoveries of the 
modern age have 
been brilliant and 
startling. Chemists 
have broken up 
simple things, such 
as a lump of coal or 
a grain of corn, into 
an astoundingnum- 
ber of elements. 
Out of coal the 
chemist can make, 
amongother things, 
illuminating gas, 
tar, oils of various 
kinds, paints, perfumes, dyestuffs, flavoring extracts, in- 
digo, explosives, roofing materials, paving materials, 
and lampblack. Corn was once used only as grain 
for cattle and hogs, or when ground into meal as food 




I Keystone View Co., Inc 

Madame Curie, a Famous French Scientist, 
IN Her Laboratory 



THE CULTURE OF THE MODERN AGE 473 

for mankind. Out of corn the chemist to-day makes 
table oil, soap, glycerin, rubber substitute, table starch, 
laundry starch, syrup, sugar, glue, and oil cake. 

Students of animal life, called zoologists, have 
studied, classified, and described millions of forms 
of animal life, ranging from the tiniest creatures that 
can be seen only under the microscope to the giant 
beasts of the African jungle. Students of rocks, geolo- 
gists, have studied the layers of the earth's surface 
and the way in which metals and stones have been 
scattered about. They have read the story of creation 
as revealed in plain, mountain, river, and valley. The 
botanists (students of plants) have done the same thing 
for all plant life. They have discovered tiny plants 
called bacteria, some of which are very harmful and 
others very useful. They have found ways of improv- 
ing plants and even of developing new kinds of fruits 
and vegetables. Chemists and botanists have united in 
discovering the kinds of plants best suited to certain soils 
and the kinds of fertilizers that produce the best crops. 

Workers in the field of physics have revealed the 
workings of natural forces. They know how to gen- 
erate and use electricity. They can tell beforehand 
how much power a rushing river will give if made to 
turn a water wheel. They can tell how strong a piece 
of steel must be to bear a certain load, whether it be 
used in a bridge or in a towering office building. In all 
the fairy tales there is nothing more wonderful than 
in the true stories of modern natural science. 



474 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Knowledge of the Human Race. Along with the 
study of the natural world inhabited by mankind there 
has been undertaken an equally zealous study of man- 
kind itself. One group of workers, called arc heolo gists, 
has dug up the ruins of ancient civilizations and shown 
us how the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Ro- 
mans lived. Another group has studied the North 
American Indians, the Eskimos of the North, the pyg- 
mies of Africa, and many other backward races, and de- 
scribed their habits, their languages, and their religions. 
Historians, instead of relying on idle tales and rumors, 
have sought to separate the truth from error and to 
tell as accurately as possible about the past of hu- 
manity. 

Economists have studied the ways in which goods are 
produced and distributed among the various classes of 
each nation. They keep track of the bales of cotton, 
the pairs of shoes, the yards of cloth, and the countless 
other products turned out each year. They receive 
reports from all parts of the world as to the way in which 
the farm crops are growing, and make shrewd guesses 
as to the prices of corn, wheat, and cotton for the com- 
ing season. Economists also study the ways of ad- 
vancing business prosperity, how to improve the con- 
ditions of wage earners, and how to get rid of unde- 
served poverty. The human race — its habits, cus- 
toms, beliefs, industries, crimes, diseases, and achieve- 
ments — receives in the modern age more attention 
than ever before in history. 



THE CULTURE OF THE MODERN AGE 



475 



How Knowledge Is Distributed and Used. Modern 
knowledge, unlike that of the ancient world or the 
middle ages, is not limited to a single class — a small 
group of learned men. It is spread broadcast through- 
out the length and breadth of the civilized world. 
Once it was the excep- 
tional person who 
knew how to read and 
write. Now, in our 
country, in western 
and northern Europe, 
in Canada, Australia, 
South Africa, New 
Zealand, and in Japan, 
it is the exceptional 
person who does not. 
Newspapers, maga- 
zines, books, and mo- 
tion pictures carry 
daily to the people the 
results of study in 
every field. In the 
middle ages only a very 
rich man could have a 
library of any size. 
Owing to the printing 
press, any one can now buy for a few dollars an ency- 
clopedia or a small library of informing books. 

Thanks to the public schools, no one needs to have the 




Swing Galloway 
Printing a Modern Newspaper 



476 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

gateways of knowledge closed against him. "" Is it not 
strange," wrote a very wise man, '' that a little child 
should be heir to the whole world ? " Yet it is true. 
A little child taught to read and write and set on the 
way to knowledge at school or in the home is heir to all 
the wisdom of the ages — to all the past. He is there- 
fore better prepared to understand his own times. In 
an age of democracy when all adults, men and women 
alike, take part in their own government, it is fitting that 
knowledge should be democratic ; that is, open to all. 

Modern knowledge is also applied knowledge. The 
ancient ruling classes scorned mechanics and trades. 
Learned men did not apply their knowledge. They sat 
about and talked and dreamed and wrote. The clergy 
of the middle ages did not look down upon honest work, 
but they did not labor hard at improving plows, invent- 
ing better water wheels, or making fields to yield larger 
crops. In other words, they were not mainly con- 
cerned with using their knowledge to lift the burden 
from mankind. Modern knowledge, on the other hand, 
is used to solve man's problems. Chemists not only 
learn the substances of which the world is made ; they 
apply chemistry in all manner of ways from multiplying 
the bushels of corn that can be grown in a field to kill- 
ing the disease germs that lurk in a fever-laden swamp. 
Men and women to-day want to know things not merely 
for the sake of knowing, but for the sake of conquering 
disease, pain, drudgery, and poverty — for the sake of 
making the world a happier place in which to live. 



THE CULTURE OF THE MODERN AGE 477 

The Idea of Progress and Reform 

The Idea. Life in the middle ages, as we have seen, 
was slow to change. The peasant in the field, the smith 
at his forge, the housewife at the fireside, went about 
their duties in almost the same way from generation to 
generation. In modern times change is continuous. A 
business man throws aside a machine that cost thousands 
of dollars because a better one has been invented. The 
housewife cooks with wood, then with coal, then with 
gas, then with electricity. The farmer sells his oxen 
and buys horses, sells his horses and buys a tractor and 
an automobile. The skilled machinist moves from Scot- 
land, Italy, or Rumania to South America or the United 
States to better his living conditions. 

The idea of progress was not wholly unknown to the 
ancients. The Roman poet Lucretius took serious note 
of the fact that mankind had passed through the stone, 
bronze, and iron ages. Other ancient writers sometimes 
spoke of the movement of the human race from stage to 
stage. But it was the nineteenth century which made 
the idea of growth the very center of all thought. Three 
great Englishmen, Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, 
and Thomas H. Huxley, did more than any others to 
apply it. Out of their teachings rose the common be- 
lief of scientists that the world we see about us, from 
the plants in the garden to the ideas in our brains, is the 
product of slow, gradual growth extending over thousands 
of years. 



478 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Improvement — the Watchword. Coupled with the 
idea that the world is constantly changing is another idea 
equally important : namely, that by taking thought and 
making combined efforts mankind may make improve- 
ments in every direction. Humanity is at work to im- 
prove schools, highways, houses, prisons, public health, 
and charitable institutions. Business men, working 
people, teachers — men and women — have come to- 
gether, or organized, for the purpose of bettering the 
lot of mankind. Societies or organizations have been 
established to oppose war, to fight disease and poverty, 
and to help little children. There is scarcely an ill that 
besets mankind which is not studied and attacked in the 
modern age. If a plague sweeps down upon a country, its 
inhabitants do not view it as an act of God, as they did 
in former times. They seek to discover the germ that 
caused it and to destroy it by science. 

Modern political parties in Europe are all striving 
for reform and improvement. There is not a party that 
has for its motto : " Keep things just as they are." All 
agree that the life of the people must be made better ; 
that poverty, disease, unemployment, and overcrowd- 
ing in the great cities must be attacked and removed. 
'' I cannot help hoping and believing that before this 
generation has passed away we shall have advanced a 
great step toward that good time w^hen poverty and 
wretchedness and human degradation . . . will be as 
remote to the people of this country as the wolves 
which once infested its forests." These are the words 



THE CULTURE OF THE MODERN AGE 479 

of Lloyd George, the premier of Great Britain and the 
foremost poHtical leader in that country. They fairly 
represent the spirit and purpose of the modern age. 

To give mankind true prosperity is the aim of the 
modern statesman. The ancient world accepted pov- 
erty and misery as the fate of all who labored. Thus 
we see how far mankind has advanced since the days 
of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Not even the wisest 
Greek philosopher included the whole mass of people in 
his plans for a better world. He thought only of the 
richer and more favored classes and left out of account 
those who toiled. 

The Churches and Reform. Religion as well as 
science has entered into the spirit of the new idea of 
progress. The improvement of the life of mankind is 
one of the noblest ends of Christian service. A powerful 
Protestant church in England declared that "the efforts 
of Christians should be directed not merely to attack- 
ing particular evils as they arise, but to discovering and 
removing the roots from which they spring." 

In 1891 the great leader of the Catholic Church, Pope 
Leo XIII, declared, " There can be no question what- 
ever that some remedy must be found and found quickly 
for the misery and wretchedness pressing so heavily and 
so unjustly at this moment upon the vast majority of the 
working classes." Thus from the Eternal City, where 
Roman emperors had once ruled with utter disregard for 
the fate of the masses, came a call to lighten the burdens 
of mankind. 



48o OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

All over Europe, churches of every denomination have 
added to their religious and charitable duties that of 
aiding in many movements for human betterment. 
They have set before them the goal of a better hu- 
manity in this world as well as the salvation of souls for 
the next world. 

Literature and Art 

Contrast with Ancient Times. The ancient forms of 
literature — poetry, drama, and histor}^ — have all 
been continued in the modern age. During the past 
three hundred years all European countries have made 
splendid additions to the general store of literature. 
The English Shakespeare and the German Goethe rank 
with the best poets that the ancient world produced. 

In our time there is a wider distribution of learning 
among the people. Greek and Roman authors wrote 
usually for a small class of persons. Alodern authors 
write for the masses and are hardly satisfied unless their 
books are read by the people of many lands. The 
classical authors usually wrote with a certain pomp and 
loftiness. The best modern writers aim at simplicity, 
directness, and clearness in style. They write for the 
people, in the tongue of the people. 

The most striking additions to literature in the mod- 
ern age are the novel and the short story. Forerunners 
of the novel, to be sure, are found in old ballads and 
fables, but it was the modern age that brought to the 
front the long story and the short dramatic tale. 



THE CULTURE OF THE MODERN AGE 481 

In Great Britain, Sir Walter Scott made the feudal 
age live again in his novels. His Ivanhoe and Quentin 
Durward will be read by boys and girls as long as there is 
any interest in medieval times. Somewhat later Charles 
Dickens pictured the customs of England in a score of 
stories which have few rivals. We can still laugh and cry 
over Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Tzvist. In her Silas 
Marner, George Eliot tells a vivid story of English 
country life during the early years of the nineteenth 
century. In such books we can gain an insight into the 
manners and customs of the past. 

In France, Victor Hugo made equally wonderful pic- 
tures of the life of his countrymen. His Les Miserables 
has all the thrill of the melodrama. At the same time 
it describes the common life of France at the opening of 
the nineteenth century. 

The novel, it will thus be seen, has not been confined 
merely to interesting tales. It has been used for a 
variety of purposes — to portray the life and spirit of a 
time, to describe an historical period and the great char- 
acters in it, or perhaps to expose a great wrong. For 
example, Charles Kingsley in his Alton Locke aroused 
all England by showing the bitter suffering that existed 
among the working classes in the reign of Queen Victoria. 
Being far more widely read than any other form of 
literature, the novel holds a high and influential place 
in the thought of Europe. It holds the same place in 
American interest. European and American novelists 
have greatly influenced each other's work. 



482 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



Art and Architecture. Modern painters do not de- 
vote their talents mainly to Biblical scenes or pictures 
of saints. They take up every imaginable theme : land- 
scapes, animals, portraits of distinguished and undis- 
tinguished people, glimpses of cities from palaces to the 
slums, cottages by the wayside, or ships swinging at 
anchor. They consider nothing too high or too humble 
for their brushes and their skill. Sculptors likewise 
represent simple subjects. All this variety stands in sharp 
contrast to the limited range of work done by the Greeks 
and by the painters and sculptors of the middle ages. 

In buildings also there is a far wider range for the 
artist. To the cathedral and the gild hall, he has added 
towering office buildings, railway stations, city halls, 
state Capitols, and schoolhouses. 

The architecture of homes has been greatly improved. 




I^hoto by Geo. F. Clijton 
An American School Building (Los Angeles) 



THE CULTURE OF THE MODERN AGE 



483 



The Greek architect who planned an exquisite temple 
was content to live in a house that would now be re- 
garded as a hovel. To-day the governments of Europe, 
especially of England and Germany, are calling on 




Metropolitan Museum 

A Corner of the Metropolitan Museum in New York City — 
AN Exhibit from Ancient Greece 

architects to design homes for working people and are 
seeking to combine beauty with comfort. Even the 
idea of planning entire cities from the point of view of 
comfort, health, and good taste has been accepted in 
Europe, as it has in America. 



484 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

So we may say that art, as well as literature, Is touched 
by the democratic spirit of the age. Every great Euro- 
pean city has its art galleries and museums open to the 
public where any one can study the best works of all times. 
Americans are constantly adding European and Oriental 
treasures to their own galleries. 

The Unity of the Modern World 

International Law. Among ancient savages there 
was no limit to the cruelty that might be practiced in 
w^ars ; prisoners might be killed or enslaved. In times 
of peace there was little or no commercial intercourse 
among the various tribes. After settlement upon the 
land took place, trade among nations became both nat- 
ural and common, but wars were frequent and tribal 
hatreds continued to flourish. 

Slowly, however, there was growing up through the 
centuries the belief that certain rules of right and justice 
ought to govern the relation of nations to one another. 
In 1625 a celebrated Dutch writer, Hugo Grotius, 
published a great work on war and peace in which he 
discussed this subject. His book is regarded as the be- 
ginning of modern international law. After the day of 
Grotius all Western countries recognized that there were 
certain rules of conduct which they should follow in 
dealing with one another. These rules were sometimes 
defined by express agreement among nations. They 
were laid down in books on international law. They 
were used by judges who were often called upon to 



THE CULTURE OF THE MODERN AGE 485 

decide disputes involving the law of nations. Writers 
on the subject had before them the ideal that all the re- 
lations of nations with one another might be fixed clearly 
in law. Accordingly, they argued, disputes among coun- 
tries might be settled in courts just as are quarrels and 
disputes among citizens. 

The Union of the Nations. Closely connected with 
the growth of international law was the desire that the 
nations should form a union or league among themselves 
to keep perpetual peace. In 1610 there was published 
a Grand Design, prepared by the Duke of Sully, a minis- 
ter of the French king. The Duke proposed to create 
in Europe a '' Christian Republic " composed of the 
fifteen independent nations. Some seventy years later 
William Penn, founder of the colony of Pennsylvania, 
issued a tract on that subject. He advocated creating 
a European parliament with full power to compel all 
nations to keep the peace. From that time forward the 
idea appeared in many forms. In 1899 and again in 
1907 a peace conference was held at The Hague in Hol- 
land on the call of the czar of Russia. All nations sent 
representatives, but only one agreement of importance 
was reached. A high court of arbitration was created. 
Nations might submit their disputes to this court if 
they saw fit, but they did not bind themselves to do so. 

During the World War, when all mankind was sick 
of bloodshed, President Wilson declared that the war 
must end in the establishment of a League of Nations to 
keep peace. As we have already seen, he succeeded in 



486 



OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 



creating the League, but it was rejected by his own 
country. Nevertheless nearly all the other nations of 
the world joined it, and the first session of the World 
Assembly was held at Geneva in the autumn of 1920. 




Keysluae View Co., Inc, 



The Peace Palace at The Hague 

The future of the League was, however, very uncertain, 
especially with the United States on the outside. 

Civilization Is IntemationaL Whatever may be the 
fate of the League of Nations or the outcome of confer- 
ences such as that called by President Harding (p. 464) 
or a later conference of European nations at Genoa to con- 
sider ways and means to better the condition of Europe, 
civilization in the modern age is less and less divided by 
the boundaries between nations. All civilized countries 
tend to become alike in ways of living. Their people 



THE CULTURE OF THE MODERN AGE 487 

wear similar clothes ; they have street cars, automobiles, 
and electric lights ; they consume similar goods ; they 
exchange professors and students ; they have the same 
Industries and problems. More and more they are 
coming to have the same ideas or standards of what is 
right and what is wrong. 

Nations not only tend to become alike ; they are 
drawn together by a thousand ties. Trade among them, 
the exchange of ideas, the increase of travel, and the 
growth of international societies draw them into a sort 
of world unity. There is not a single important 
interest of mankind that does not concern all nations. 
The Roman Catholic Church has churches and mis- 
sions all over the world. The Protestant denominations 
hold world congresses. The flow of scientific ideas from 
nation to nation is constant, and the workers in the 
several fields hold frequent international conferences. 
The Red Cross and agencies for the improvement of pub- 
lic health know no national boundaries. Relief work 
of every kind goes on regardless of political boundaries. 
Every plan of human betterment, every branch of knowl- 
edge, has the world for its field. 

America and the Future. In the midst of this strik- 
ing unity of all the world, there is room for each nation 
to develop its own powers and do its own work. As the 
Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans made their 
gifts to humanity, so America has its mission to fulfill. 

To-day we stand at the opening of a new epoch. Our 
country began as weak and straggling settlements on the 



488 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Atlantic coast. For a long time it had to depend on the 
Old World for nearly everything except the roughest 
necessities of life. It looked to Europe for the finer 
manufactured articles and for books, music, art, and 
science. It sought there the money with which to de- 
velop its natural resources and build its factories. To 
Europe it turned for immigrants to till its wide reaches 
of vacant lands. For nearly two hundred years our 
land was a province of the British empire. 

Now all that has been changed. Our country has be- 
come a great and independent nation. It has spread 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Its vacant lands have 
been taken up. The continent has been spanned by 
railways. The wilderness has been cleared and turned 
into farms. America has become the first manufactur- 
ing country of the world. It no longer tries to entice 
more immigrants to its shores. On the contrary. Con- 
gress searches for ways to cut down the number that 
would come. America has grown up. It is of age. 

The new era before us, therefore, presents new tasks. 
One of them is the task of drawing the millions of 
foreigners already here into the main stream of Ameri- 
can life. A second is to conserve and make better use 
of our natural resources. A third is to improve our 
ways of living in town and country. A fourth is to 
bring forth our best powers in science, art, literature, 
and government — to encourage and appreciate Ameri- 
can talent. This does not mean that we should spurn 
our inheritance from the past or refuse to learn from 



THE CULTURE OF THE MODERN AGE 489 

our neighbors. It merely means that we should profit 
by our splendid heritage from ancient, medieval, and 
modern times. It means that we should keep for our 
symbol that wonderful word Opportunity — not op- 
portunity for wealth and power alone, but opportunity 
for great achievements in the realm of the spirit. 
Temples, palaces, amphitheaters, and even mighty cities, 
may, as we have seen, crumble into dust, but the things 
of the human spirit are everlasting. 



Questions and Exercises 

I. I. What are some of the important differences between the 
modern age and ancient and medieval times ? Can you add to 
the list of differences given in the text (pp. 468-9) ? 

II. I. Of the subjects that you are studying in school, which 
would you group with the "natural sciences".^ Which with 
"knowledge of the human race" (sometimes called the "social 
sciences").^ 2. The work of the botanists has been very help- 
ful to farmers. Do you know of any way in which the work of 
the botanists has helped the physician .? How has the chemist 
aided the physician t How has the chemist helped the farmer .^ 
What occupations have probably been helped most by the stu- 
dents of physics .^ 3. Of what value is it to know about the habits 
and customs of backward races t 4. What problems do the econ- 
omists study t In what ways may the results of their study be 
helpful to mankind t 5. Why has the distribution of knowledge 
been so important in making the modern age different from the 
ages that went before t In what way does the public school help 
in the distribution of knowledge t In what way do newspapers 
help ? Some people believe that the radio telephone will become 
one of the most important agencies in distributing knowledge. 



490 OUR OLD WORLD BACKGROUND 

Can you think of any advantages that the radio telephone may 
have over newspapers and books for this purpose ? 

in. I. In ancient and medieval times the life of each genera- 
tion was much like the life of the generations that preceded it and 
followed it. Find out from talking with your fathers and mothers 
how your life to-day differs from the way in which they lived as 
children. Most of you have grandparents still living. Find out 
how their childhood differed from your childhood and from that 
of your parents. Perhaps they can tell you something of their 
parents and the way in which they lived as children. Thus you 
will be able to learn something of the changes that have been 
brought about in three or four generations. 2. What societies or 
organizations in your neighborhood are working for the improve- 
ment of the conditions under which people live and work to-day ? 

3. Find out what changes or improvements are being sought by 
the political party of which your father or mother is a member. 

4. What are the churches in your town or city working for in the 
way of town or city improvement .^ 5- In some schools, the boys 
and girls form clubs to help in the improvement of the school and 
the care of the school grounds, or to help keep the streets free from 
rubbish and the yards and gardens of their homes attractive. 
Inmanyof the country schools, the boys and girls have "corn clubs" 
and "poultry clubs" and try in their gardens and poultry yards at 
home to raise better crops and better chickens. In what ways are 
the children of your school working for progress and improvement t 

IV. I. What are some of the important differences between 
the literature of the ancient world and that of the modern world t 
2. Why is the novel "more widely read than any other form of 
literature".^ 3. By comparing in your own neighborhood old 
houses with modern houses make a list of the important improve- 
ments that modern methods of planning and building have made 
possible. Ask your parents and grandparents to describe the 
schoolhouses of their childhood. Compare these with the modern 
schoolhouses that you know. 



t 



THE CULTURE OF THE MODERN AGE 491 

V. I. With what kind of problems is international law con- 
cerned ? 2. A person who breaks a state law or a national law 
can be arrested and, if convicted after trial, he can be punished. 
What can be done with a nation that breaks an international 
law? 3. What forces are gradually bringing the nations of the 
world together ? 4. How can our country help to keep the world 
from another great war ? 

VL Some people believe that, in spite of all that has hap- 
pened during the long centuries of history, mankind is really no 
better oflP than he was in ancient times. Do you agree with this ^ 
If not, what reasons would you give to prove that mankind after 
all has made progress and that life is better to-day than it was in 
the past ? 



I 



PRONOUNCING INDEX OF NAMES 



KEY TO PRONUNCIATION 
(Webster's International Dictionary) 

ale, senate, care, am, account, arm, ask, sofd ; eve, event, 6nd, recent, 
maker ; ice, ill ; old, obey, orb, odd, connect ; use, unite, urn, up, circws, 
menii ; food, foot ; out, oil ; chair ; go ; then, thin ; nature, verdure ; zh = 
z in azure. 

The numbers refer to pages. Where several references are given, the pages 
on which the principal description is to be found are indicated by heavier type. 



Abyssinia (ab'l-sln'i-d), 417 

Acadia (d-ka'di-d), 279 

Adams, John (ad'amz), 307 

Adriatic Sea (a'dre-at'Ik), 152, 368, 
435 

Aeschylus (gs'kl-liis), 89 

Aesop (e'sop), 4 

Africa (af'ri-kd), 11; early map of, 
200; first voyages around, 205; 
European occupation of, 413-417 

Alaric (al'd-rlk), 115, 137 

Alaska (d-las'kd), 17 

Alexander the Great (al'gg-zan'der) , 
47, 187-188 

Alfred the Great (al'frgd), 145, 172- 
174, 180, 232 

Algiers (al-jerz'), 416 

Alien and Sedition Acts (al'yen), 308 

Alsace-Lorraine (al-sas'-l6-ran'), 351, 
361, 436 

America (d-m6r'I-kd), naming of, 
206 ; meaning of English revolu- 
tions to, 255-256 ; and Napoleonic 
wars, 314, 316 ; emigration to, 344, 



348-349, 374-375; and the fu- 
ture, 487-489. See also United 
States 

Anatolia (an'd-to'li-d), 13 

Angelo, Michael (an'je-lo, mi'kgl), 
141 

Angles (an'gl'z), 115, 171 

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (an'glo-sak'- 
sun), 143 

Anne, Queen of England (an), 255 

Aphrodite (af'ro-dl'ti), 96 

Apollo (d-p61'o), 96 

Aquinas, St. Thomas (d-kwi'nds), 
132 

Arabia (d-ra'bl-d), 52 

Arabs (ar'dbz), 12, 169 

Aragon (ar'd-gon), 170 

Ares (a'res), 96 

Argos (ar'g6s), 48 

Aristotle (ar'Is-tot'l), 61, 89, 90, 
93, 95, 98, 146, 201, 448 

Arizona (ar'I-zo'nd), 208 

Arkwright, Richard (ark'rit), 332 

Aries (arlz), 66 



493 



494 



PRONOUNCING INDEX OF NAMES 



Armada, Spanish (ar-ma'dd), 266 

Arungzebe (6'riing-zeb'), 270 

Asia (a'shd), 11, 198 

Asia Minor (a'shd mi'ner), 43 

Athena (d-the'nd), 96 

Athens (ath'enz), 48, 49, 50, 58, 64, 

65, 85 ; social classes in, 57, 60- 

61 ; temple in, 80 ; education in, 93 
Atlantic Ocean (at-lan'tik), 324 
Attica (at'i-kd), 50 
Augsburg Confession (ouks'boorK), 

219 
Augustine (6'gws-tin), 127 
Augustus (6-gus'tMs), 54, 100 
Australia (6s-tra'li-d), 11, 37, 344, 

463 
Austria (6s'tri-d), 278, 280, 296, 302, 

317, 344, 359, 361, 363, 364, 365, 

366, 371 
Austria-Hungary (6s'tri-d-hun'gd-ri) , 

372-373 ; democracy in, 392-393 ; 

in World War, 429-439; collapse 

of, 450-452 
Azores (d-zorz'), 205 

Baal, Temple of (ba'dl), 79 
Babylon (bab'i-lon), 43-44, 64-65, 

75, 79 
Babylonia (bab'i-lo'ni-d), 42-47, 86 
Bacon, Roger (ba'k'n), 201 
Bagdad (bag-dad'), 194, 346 
Bahama Islands (bd-ha'md), 426 
Balkan States (bal-kan'), 368-372, 

393, 453, 455 
Baltic Sea (bol'tik), 373, 450 
Baptists (bap'tists), 224 
Bastille (bas-tel'), 300, 301, 302 
Bavaria (bd-va'ri-d), 359 
Belgium (bel'ji-Mm), 20, 430-431 
Belgrade (bel'grad'), 369 
Benedict, St. (b6n'e-dikt), 131 



Beowulf (ba'o-wiilf), 88 
Berlin (bur'lin'), 2, 317 
Berlin-Bagdad railway (bur'lin'-bag- 

dad'), 346 
Bible (bl'b'l), 89, 231-234 
Bill of Rights, English, 253-254 
Birmingham, Eng. (bur'ming-dm), 

327 
Bismarck, Otto von (bis'mark, ot'to 

fon), 361 
Blackburn, Eng. (blak'bf/rn), 332 
Black Sea, 194, 196, 197 
Boers (boorz), 416 
Bohemia (bo-he'mi-d), 215 
Bojador, Cape (boj'a-dor'), 205 
Boleyn, Anne (bool'In, an), 220 
Bolivar, Simon (bo-le'viir), 419 
Bolivia (bo-liv'i-d), 13 
Bolsheviki (bol'she-ve'ke), 433, 446- 

450 
Bonaparte, Xapoleon (bo'nd-part, 
nd-po'le-un), 284-285. See Na- 
poleon I 
Bosnia (boz'ni-d), 429 
Bosporus (bos'po-rws), 455 
Boulogne (boo'lon'y'), 13 
Boulton, Matthew (bol'tun), 327, 329 
Bourbons, French (boor'bfmz), 291, 

316, 380; Spanish, 363 
Braddock, General (brad'uk), 275 
Brazil (bra-zil'), 264, 266, 418, 432 
Bristol, Eng. (bris'twl), 151, 243 
Britain (brif'n), 52, 171-172; con- 
version of, to Christianity, 127-128 
Bronze Age (bronz), 28-30 
Buenos Aires (bwa'nos i'ras), 424 
Bulgaria (bool-ga'ri-d), 370, 393 
Bunyan, John (bun'ydn), 4, 224 
Burke, Edmund (burk), 308 
Bushmen (boosh'men), 37 
Byron, Lord (bi'rwn), 369 



PRONOUNCING INDEX OF NAMES 



495 



Cabot, John (kab'ut), 4-5, 206, 264 
Cabot, Sebastian (se-bas'chan), 206 
Caesar, Julius (se'zdr, jool'yMs), 8, 

52, 54, 63, 91, 149; Commentaries 

of, 91, 92 
Cairo, Egypt (ki'ro), 346 
Calvin, John (kal'vin), 225 
Canada (kan'd-d«), 11, 273, 275 
Canterbury Tales (kan'ter-b6r-I), 181- 

182 
Canute (ka-nuf), 174 
Capet, Hugh (ka'p6t, hu), 167 
Cape-to-Cairo railway, 346 
Cape Town (kap toun), 346 
Carolingians (ka'ro-lin'ji-dnz), 163- 

167 
Caribbean region (kar'i-be'dn), 417, 

425-426 
Carthage (kar'thaj), 52, 60, 64 
Cartier, Jacques (kar'tya', zhiik), 206- 

207 
Cartwright, Edmund (kiirfrit), 334 
Castile (kas-tel'), 170 
Catacombs (kat'd-komz), 104 
Cathay (kd-tha'), 197, 198 
Cato (ka'to), 59 

Caucasus Mountains (ko'kd-stis), 450 
CavaHers (kav'd-lerz'), 255 
Cavour, Count (ka'Vobr'), 364-366 
Caxton, William (kaks'twn), 182 
Central America, 11, 417-426 
Central Park, 1 
Ceylon (se-l6n'), 286 
Champs de Mars (shaN' de mar'), 

302 
Charlemagne (shar'le-man), 164-167, 

170 
Charles I of England (charlz), 244, 

245-249 
Charles II of England, 250, 252-253 
Charles X of France, 380 



Charles, ex-Emperor of Austria, 452 
Chaucer, Geoffrey (cho'ser, jef'ri), 

181-182 
China (chi'nd), 11-12, 19, 86-87, 151, 

188, 197-198, 208, 351, 408-411; 

growth of democracy in, 401-402 ; 

and Japan contrasted, 411-413; 

policy of United States toward, 

412-413; after World War, 462, 

463, 465 
Cicero (sis'er-o), 6, 8, 61, 90, 92, 149, 

154 
Clemenceau, Georges (kle'maN'so', 

zhorj), 436 
Cleopatra (kle'6-pa'trd) , 52 
Clermont (kler'mont), 329 
Cleveland, Grover (klev'ldnd), 423 
Clive, Robert (kliv), 272, 280 
Clovis (klo'vis), 126, 163 
Cologne (ko-lon'), 151 
Colosseum, Rome (kol'o-se'Mm), 65, 

81, 91, 103 
Columbus, Christopher (ko-liim'biis, 

kris'to-fer), 10, 31, 106, 137, 152, 

171, 200, 205, 206, 470 
Congo River (kon'go), 417 
Congregationalists (kon'gre-ga'shwn- 

al-ists), 223 
Constantine (kon'stan-ten), Arch of, 

55 
Constantine, Emperor, 104 
Constantinople (kon-stdn'tl-no'p'l) , 

116, 141, 147, 192, 194, 196, 368, 

454, 455 
Copernicus (ko-pur'ni-kws), 470-471 
Corinth (kor'Inth), 48 
Cortez (kor'tez), Ferdinand, 207-208 
Coster (kos'ter), 149 
Crimea (kri-me'd), 427 
Cromwell, Oliver (krom'wgl), 242, 

247-250, 311 



49^ 



PRONOUNCING INDEX OF NAMES 



Crusades (kroo-sadz'), 192 
Crusoe, Robinson (kroo'so), 32 
Cuba {ku'hd), 17, 266, 425 
Cugnot (ku'nyoO, 329 
Curie, Madame (kii're'), 472 
Czechoslovakia (cheK'o-slo-vak'i-d) , 

451 
Czechs (chgKz), 356 

Damascus (dd-mas'kiis), 102 
Dante (dan'te), 142, 144 
Danton (daN'toN'), 305 
Danube River (dan'ub), 47, 368 
Darwin, Charles (dar'win), 477 
Davis, Jefferson (da' vis, jgf er-sun), 19 
Declaration of Independence, 256-257 
Defoe, Daniel (de-fo'), 4 
Delaware (dgl'd-war), 5 
Demeter (de-me'ter), 96 
Demosthenes (de-m6s'the-nez), 89, 

90-91 
Denmark (dgn'mark), 219, 344, 361, 

426 
De Soto (de so'to), 208 
Diaz, Bartholomew (de'ash, bar- 

th6l'6-mu), 205 
Dickens, Charles (dik'gnz), 8, 481 
Discus Thrower (dis'kus), 83, 84 
Disraeli, Benjamin (diz-ra'li, bgn'jd- 

min), 385 
Domesday Book (domz'da'), 180 
Douay Bible (doo'a'), 233 
Drake, Sir Francis (drak), 265-266 
Duma (doo'ma), 396 
Dupleix, Marquis (du'plgks'), 270 
Duquesne, Fort (doo-kan'), 282 
Dutch (diich), 264; war between 

English and, 266-268 

East India Company (est in'di-d), 
269, 273 



East Indies (in'diz), 268 

Edward VI of England (ed'werd), 
221 

Egbert, King (eg'bert), 172 

Egypt (e'jipt), 42-47, 52, 57, 86, 
310, 347, 348, 416 

Elba (el'bd), 314 

Eliot, George (eVi-ui), 481 

Elizabeth, Queen of England (5- 
hz'd-beth), 222-223 

Endicott, John (6n'di-kot), 242 

England (ing'gldnd), 7, 13, 18, 20; 
making of nation of, 171-182; the 
Protestant Reformation in, 220- 
227 ; political revolution in, 238- 
258 ; commercial leadership of, 
264-268 ; conflict between France 
and, 268, 268-273; triumph of, 
in Canada, 273-275; and Euro- 
pean balance of power, 276, 278 ; 
wars of, in 17th and 18th centuries, 
278-286; industrial leadership of, 
341; democracy in, 382-386; 
and World War, 428, 431-439; 
and Irish Revolt, 455-457 

Erasmus (e-raz'mfis), 216, 232 

Eskimos (es'kl-mos), 12 

Esthonia (6s-th6'ni-d), 450 

Ethelbert (eth'el-burt), 127-128 

Euphrates River (ti-fra'tez), 43, 64, 
72, 73 

Euripides (u-rip'i-dez), 89 

Europe (u'rwp), trade of, 12-13; 
American influence on, 14, 16 ; 
at present time, 444-462 

Faust, Johann (foust, yo'han), 149 

Federalists, 306 

Ferdinand of Spain (fur'di-nand), 

170, 171 
Finland (fin'ldnd), 450 



PRONOUNCING INDEX OF NAMES 



497 



Florence (flor'ens), 139, 147, 152, 

193 
Florida (flor'i-dd), 208 
Foch, General (fosh), 434 
Fontainebleau (foN'tgn'blo'), 291 
Forum, Roman (fo'rwm), 65, 92 
Fox, George (foks), 227 
France (frans), 18, 19, 20, 27, 284- 
286; feudalism in, 120-125; rise 
and growth of, 163-169; Protes- 
tant revolt in, 227-228; conflict 
between England and, in 17th 
century, 268-275 ; combinations 
of nations against, in 17th and 18th 
centuries, 278-282 ; Napoleonic 
wars in, 310-317 ; democracy in, 
380-382; and World War, 428, 
430-439 
Francis Joseph (f ran 'sis jo'zef). Em- 
peror, 393 
Francis of Assisi, St. (as-se'ze), 131 
Franco-Prussian War, 361, 382, 427 
Franklin, Benjamin (frank'lln), 1,284 
Franks (frUnks), 115 
Frederick the Great (fred'er-ik), 280 
French and Indian War, 275 
French Revolution, 14, 284, 290-317 
Fulton, Robert (fobl'twn), 329 

Galen (ga'lcn), 62-63 

Galilee (gal'i-le), 106 

GaHleo (gal'I-le'o), 470 

Gama, Vasco da (ga'ma, vas'ko da), 

205 
Ganges River (gan'jez), 200, 273 
Garibaldi, Joseph (gar'i-bol'di), 365, 

366, 375 
Gaul (gol), 52, 66, 126, 163 
Geneva (je-ne'vd), 438, 488 
Genoa (jen'6-d), 152, 193; conference 

of European nations at, 482 



George I of England (jorj), 255 

George II of England, 255-256 

George III of England, 19, 256, 284, 
303, 384, 388 

Georgia (j6r'ji-d), 450 

Germans, invasions of Rome by, 
115-116 

Germany (jur'md-ni), 19, 317, 343, 
344, 350, 351 ; Hanseatic League 
in, 151 ; the Protestant Reforma- 
tion in, 214-220; unification of, 
359-363; democracy in, 389-392; 
in World War, 427-439; revolu- 
tion of 1918, 444-446 

Gettysburg Address (get'Iz-biirg), 6, 
234 

Gibraltar, Strait of (ji-brol'ter), 193, 
202 ; fortress of, 279 

Giotto (jot 'to), 141 

Gladstone, W. E. (glad'ston), 385 

Glasgow, University of (glas'go), 327 

Goethe (gu'te), 480 

Good Hope, Cape of, 205, 208, 268, 
413, 416 ; taken by England, 285 

Gothic architecture (goth'ik), 139 

Goths (goths), 115, 169 

Granada (grd-na'dd), 171 

Grand Design, 485 

Grand Monarch, 273 

Great Britain (brif'n), 455-457. See 
England 

Great Lakes, 273 

Greece (gres), 47-50, 52, 57, 73, 88, 
369-371, 393, 455; art of ancient, 
82-84 ; literature of, 89-93 ; educa- 
tion in, 92-94 ; religion of, 95-100 

Grotius, Hugo (gro'shi-ws, hu'go), 
484 

Guam (gwam), 17 

Guiana (ge-a'nd), 418 

Gutenberg, John (goo'ten-b6rK), 149 



498 



PRONOUNCING INDEX OF NAMES 



Hague, The (hag), 19, 485, 486 
Haiti (ha'tl), 17, 425-426 
Hamburg (ham'burg), 13, 151 
Hamilton, Alexander (ham'il-tun), 7, 

306 
Hampden, John (ham'den), 242, 246 
Hanseatic League (han'se-at'ik leg', 

151 
Hapsburg family (haps'boorK), 291, 

372, 392-393, 451 

Harding, Warren G. (hiir'dlng), 20, 

439, 464, 486 
Hargreaves, James (hiir'grevz), 332 
Harold II of England (har'iild), 175 
Harvey, WilHam (har'vi), 471 
Hastings, battle of (has'tlngz), 175 
Hawaiian Islands (ha-wi'yan I'landz), 

17 
Henry, Prince (''the Navigator") 

(hen'rl), 204-205 
Henry VIII of England, 220-221, 

230 
Herodotus (he-rod'o-tws) , 89, 188 
Hiawatha (hl'd-wo'thct), 88 
Hohenzollern family (ho'en-tsol'ern), 

276, 291, 373, 389, 390, 392 
Holland (hol'and), 19, 291 
Holy Roman Empire, 166, 317 
Homer (ho'mer), 88, 89, 90 
Hongkong (hong'kong'), 13, 411 
Horace (hSr'as), 90 
Horn, Cape (horn), 208 
Hudson River (hud'swn), 329 
Hudson's Bay, 279 
Hughes, Charles S. (huz), 464 
Hugo, Victor (hu'go), 481 
Huguenots (hu'ge-nots), 227-228 
Hungary (httng'ga-ri), 343, 344, 372- 

373, 392-393, 450-452 
Huss, John (hus), 215 

Huxley, Thomas^H. (huks'h), 477 



Iliad (il'i-ad), 89 

India (in'di-d), 151, 187-188, 193, 
196, 200, 205, 208, 280; in 17th 
century, 268-270; English con- 
quest of, 270, 272-273 

Indian Ocean, 200 

Indians, North American, 21, 27, 31 

Ireland (Ir'land), 343, 344, 455-457 

Irish Free State (I'rish), 457 

Iron Age (I'wrn), 30-31 

Isabella I of Spain (iz'd-bel'a), 106, 
170, 171, 204 

Isis (i'sis), 75 

Italy (it'd-li), 20, 73, 343, 354; so- 
cial classes in ancient, 58-64 ; trad- 
ing cities in, 151 ; leading medieval 
cities of, 151-152; unification of, 
363-366; democracy in, 388-389; 
and World War, 431-439 

Jacobins (jak'6-binz), 303, 306 
James I of England (jamz), 233, 239, 

245, 249 
James II of England, 253 
Jamestown, Va. (jamz'toun), 10, 20 
Japan (jd-pan'), 11-12, 86-87, 322, 

396, 408-411 ; democracy in, 398- 

401 ; China and, contrasted, 411- 

413; in World War, 341; after 

World War, 462-463 
Java (jaVd), 208, 268 
Jefferson, Thomas (jef'er-swn), 9, 95, 

256-257, 306, 314 
Jehovah (je-ho'vd), 99 
Jerome, St. (je-rom'), 115 
Jerusalem (je-roo'sd-lem), 64, 70, 101, 

102 
Jesuits (jez'ii-its), 131 
Jesus Christ (je'zws krist), 1^0-101, 

102-103 
Jews (juz), 8, 101 



PRONOUNCING INDEX OF NAMES 



499 



John of England (jon), 176, 177, 323 
Jupiter (joo'pi-ter), 96, 100 
Jutes (jutz), 171 

Kalm, Peter (kalm), 14 
Karnak, Temple of (kar'nak), 78 
Katherine of Aragon (kath'er-in), 

220 
Kay, John (ka), 333 
Kew Gardens (ku), 34 
Khan, Great (Kan), 197 
King George's War, 280 
King James Version of Bible, 233 
Kingsbridge, London (kingz'brij), 20 
Kingsley, Charles (kingz'li), 481 
Knox, John (noks), 225 
Korea (ko-re'd), 412 
Kosciusko (kos'i-us'ko), 453 
Kossuth, Louis (ko-sooth'), 372, 375 

Lafayette (la'fa-ygf), 1, 14, 290, 380 

La Paz (la pas), 13 

Latin America (lat'in d-m6r'i-kd), 

417-426 
Latvia (lat'vi-d), 450 
League of Nations (leg), 436, 438- 

439, 485, 486; refusal of United 

States to join, 460 
Leeds, Eng. (ledz), 384 
Leipzig (llp'sik), 314 
Lenine (le-nen'), 448 
Leo III, Pope fle'o), 166 
Leo XIII, Pope, 479 
Leon (la-6n'), 170 
Libia (lib'i-d), 417 
Libreville (lebr'-vel'), 13 
Lincoln, Abraham (ling'kMn), 3-4, 6, 

19, 234 
Lincoln, England, 151 
Lisbon (liz'bwn), 204. 
Lithuania (Hth'u-a'ni-d), 450 



Liverpool (liv'er-pool), 13 
Livingstone, David (liv'ing-stwn), 

413-414 
Lloyd George, David (loid jorj), 436, 

457, 479 
Locke, John (16k), 256 
Lombardy (I6m'bdr-di), 363, 365 
London (lun'dun), 2, 20, 34, 66, 151, 

196, 243, 340 
Longfellow, H. W. (l6ng'f6l-o), 88, 

142 
Lorraine (l6-ran'), 361 
Los Angeles, Calif, (los an'jel-es), 482 
Louisiana (loo-e'ze-an'd), 273, 282, 

316 
Louis Napoleon (loo'e'). See Na- 
poleon III 
Louis Philippe (loo'e' fe'lep'), 380- 

381 
Louis XIV of France, 168, 169, 228, 

273, 278 
Louis XV of France, 280 
Louis XVI of France, 258, 298, 299, 

302, 303, 310, 316 
Louis XVIII of France, 379 
Loyola, Ignatius (loi-6'ld, ig-na'shi- 

us), 131 
Lucretius (lii-kre'shi-ws), 477 
Luther, Martin (loo'ther), 217-219, 

229, 233 

Macedonia (mas'e-do'ni-d), 47, 370 

Madeira (md-de'rd), 205 

Madison, James (mad'i-s7<n), 7, 316 

Magellan, Fernando (md-jel'dn), 206 

Magenta (md-jen'td), 365 

Magna Carta (mag'nd kar'td), 176, 

177-178, 323 
Mainz (mints), 150 
Manchester, Eng. (man'ch6s-ter), 

243, 339, 340, 348, 384 



500 



PRONOUNCING INDEX OF NAMES 



Marat, Jean Paul (ma'ra', zhoN pol), 

305 
Marconi, William (mar-ko'ne), 467 
Marcus Aurelius (mar'kws 6-re'li-i/s), 

98-99 
Marie Antoinette (ma're' aN'twa'net') 

303 
Mark, Apostle (mark), 101 
Marne, battles of (marn), 432 
Mars (marz), 96 
"Marseillaise," 303, 317 
Marseilles (mar-salz'), 196, 303, 345 
Marshall, John (mar'shdl), 301 
Marsiglio of Padua (mar-seryo), 144 
Martineau, Harriet (mar'ti-no), 16 
Mary I of England (ma'ri), 222 
Mary II of England, 253-254 
Maryland (m6r'i-land), 227 
Masaryk, Thomas (mas'd-rik), 451 
Massachusetts Bay Colony (mas'd- 

choo's6ts), 223 
Mauro, Fra (mo'ro, fra), 200 
Maximilian of Austria (mak'si-miF- 

ydn), 422 
Mayflower (ma'flou-er), 5 
Mazzini, Joseph (mat-se'ne), 363-364 
Mediterranean Sea (mgd'!-ter-a'ne- 

dn), 8, 43, 49, 61, 187, 193, 194 
Memphis (mem'fis), 64 
Mesopotamia (mes'6-p6-ta'mi-d), 351 
Metropolitan Museum, 75 
Mexico (mek'si-ko), 11, 207-208, 382, 

417-426 
Mikado of Japan (ml-ka'do), 397, 401 
Milan (mi-lan'), 138, 152 
Miletus (ml-le'tus), 48 
Minerva (mi-nur'vd), 75 
Minorca (mi-nor'kd), 279 
Mississippi River (mis'i-sip'I), 208 
Mogul, Great (mo-gul'), 269-270 
Mogul empire, 269-270 



Mohammed (mo-ham '6d), 169, 368 
Mohammedans (m6-ham'6d-dnz), 

169-170, 191-192 
Monroe, James (mwn-ro'), 420 
Monroe Doctrine, 419-423 
Montenegro (mSn'te-na'gro), 370, 

431 
Montreal (mont're-ol'), 273 
Moors (moorz), 169-170 
More, Sir Thomas (mor), 230 
Morocco (m6-r6k'o), 417 
Moscow (mos'ko), 2 

Nantes, Edict of (nants, e'dlkt 6v), 

228 
Naples (na'p'lz), 80 
Napoleon I (nd-po'le-wn), 20, 284- 

285, 309, 310-314, 358, 378, 379 
Napoleon III, 361, 365, 366, 381- 

382, 422 
Navajo Indians (nav'd-ho), 36 
Navarre (nd-var'), 170 
Nelson, Admiral (ngl'sun), 310 
Nero (ne'ro), 100 
Netherlands, The (n&tfe-'er-ldndz), 

194, 227, 264 
New Amsterdam (Sm'ster-dam), 267 
Newfoundland (nu'fi/nd-land'), 279 
New Jersey (jur'zi), 225 
New Mexico (m6k'si-ko), 208 
New Netherland (n6%h-'er-ldnd), 5, 

267 
New Orleans (or'le-dnz), 273 
New Rochelle (ro-shgl'), N. Y., 228 
Newton, Sir Isaac (nti'tiin, sur i'zdk), 

471 
New York, colony (york), 5 
New York City, 1, 85-86, 267, 483 
Nicaragua (nik'd-rd-ra'gwd), 17 
Nicholas II of Russia (nik'6-lds), 394, 

396, 446 



PRONOUNCING INDEX OF NAMES 



501 



Nile River (nil), 43, 58, 72, 73, 82, 

413 
Nile, battle of, 310 
Nimes (nem), 62 
Nineveh (nin'e-ve), 64, 75, 88 
Norman Conquest (nor'man), 174- 

176 
North America, 11 
North German Confederation, 361 
Norway (nor'wa), 219, 344 
Notre Dame, cathedral of (no'tr' 

dam'), 313 

Obrenovitch, Milosh (6-bre'no-vich, 

me'losh), 369 
Octavianus (6k-ta'vi-a'nr/s), 54 
Odyssey (6d'i-si), 89 
Orange, France (or'gnj), 66 
Orient (o'ri-ent), 11-12; nations of, 

42-47; art and artists of, 81-82; 

literature of, 88-89 ; growth of 

democracy in, 396-402 ; Europe 

in, 408-413; after World War, 

432-453 
Orlando, Vittorio (6r-lan'do, vit-o'- 

ri-6), 436 
Otto, King of Greece (ot'o), 370 
Ottoman Turks (ot'o-mdn), 368-370 
Oxford, Eng. (oks'ferd), 146 

Pacific Ocean (pd-sif'ik), 17, 463 

Paestum (pes'tftm), 50, 80 

Palestine (pal'es-tln), 8, 64, 73, 100, 
187, 191 

Panama, Isthmus of (pan'd-ma'), 17 

Panama Canal, 426 

Pankhurst, Emmeline (pank'hurst), 
403 

Pantheon (pan-the'on), 80 

Paris (par'is), 19, 20, 66, 314; medie- 
val center of learning, 146 ; peace 



conference at, after World War, 

435-439, 453, 459 
Parliament (par'li-ment), British, 

178-179, 385, 386 
Parthenon (par'the-non), 49, 97 
Paul, Apostle (pol), 101, 102 
Pegolotti (peg'o-lot'ti), 198 
Peking (peeking'), 194, 197 
Penn, Wilham (pen), 227, 234, 485 
Pennsylvania (pen'sil-va'ni-d), 220, 

225, 227, 273, 275, 280, 282, 485 
Pennsylvania, University of, 235 
Perry, Commodore (per'i), 409, 410 
Pershing, John J. (pur'shing), 14, 434 
Persia (pur'shd), 13, 47, 51 
Persian Gulf, 194, 196 
Peru (pe-roo'), 208 
Peter, Apostle (pe'ter), 105 
Petition of Right, English, 247 
Pharaohs (fa'roz), 43, 86 
Pharisees (far'i-sez), 101 
Phidias (fld'i-as), 84 
Philadelphia (fil'd-del'fi-d), 7 
Phihp of Macedon (fil'ip), 90 
Phihppine Islands (firi-pin). 17, 266 
Pho'enicia (fe-nish'i-d), 61, 64 
Picts (pikts), 171 
Piedmont (ped'mont), 363 
Pilate, Pontius (pl'ldt, pon'shiis), 101 
Pilgrims (pil'grimz), 323 
Pilgrim's Progress, 224 
Pisa (pe'sa), 152 
Pitt (pit), William, 275, 282 
Pittsburgh (pits 'burg), 282 
Pizarro (pi-ziir'ro), 208 
Plassey (plas'e), 280 
Plato (pla'to), 90, 93, 94, 448 
Plebeians (ple-be'ydnz), 59 
Plymouth, Eng. (plim'iith), 243 
Plymouth, Mass., 20, 224 
Poland (po'ldnd), 343, 354, 453 



502 



PRONOUNCING INDEX OF NAMES 



Polo, Marco Cpo'lo, mar'ko), 197-198, 

200 
Polo brothers, 197, 198 
Pondicherry (pon'di-sher'i), 270 
Porto Rico (por'to re'ko), 17, 425 
Portugal (por' t^-gal ), 1 7 1 , 204, 262, 264 
Presbyterians (prez'bi-te'ri-dnz), 225 
Protestant Reformation, 213-237 
Prussia (prush'd), 276, 280, 282, 294, 

296, 302, 317, 359, 361, 389-390 
Ptolemy, Claudius (tol'e-mi), 199 
Puritans (pu'ri-tdnz), 223, 249-250 
Pyrenees Mountains (pir'e-nez), 115, 

169 

Quakers (kwak'erz), 225, 227 
Quebec (kwe-bek'), 280, 281 

Red Sea, 194 

Reign of Terror, 304-305 

Republicans (re-ptib'li-kdnz), 306 

Rhine River (rin), 278 

Rhode Island (rod i'ldnd), 224 

Robespierre (ro'bes-pyar'), 305 

Rochelle (ro-shel'), 228 

Romanesque architecture (ro'mdn- 
esk'), 139 

Romanoff family (ro-ma'nof), 276, 
291, 373, 393-396 

Rome (rom), 2, 51-56, 57, 58, 64, 65, 
85, 366 ; art of, 84 ; literature of, 
90-91; education in, 92-94; re- 
ligion of, 95-100; persecution of 
Christians at, 103-104 ; acceptance 
of Christianity at, 104-105; de- 
cline of, 112-116 

Roosevelt, Theodore (roz'e-velt), 6, 
423 

Rouen (rwaN), 150 

Rumania (roo-ma'ni-d), 370, 393, 
432, 433, 453 



Runnymede (run'i-med), 177 
Russia (riish'd), 12, 276, 296, 343, 
369, 370; Napoleon's campaign 
against, 314; nationalism in, 373; 
democracy in, 393-396 ; revolu- 
tion of 1917, 446-450 
Russo-Japanese War (rus'o-jap'd- 
nez'), 411-412 

Sagres (sa'grez), 204, 205 

Sahara Desert (sd-hii'rd), 43 

St. Helena (sant he-le'nd), 314 

St. Lawrence River (sant 16'rens), 

207, 273 
St. Mark's, Venice (sant marks), 140, 

363 
St. Peter's, Rome (sant pe'terz), 367 
St. Petersburg (sant pe'terz-burg), 

317 
Saladin (sal'a-din), 193 
Samoan Islands (sii-mo'dn), 17 
Santo Domingo (san'to do-min'go), 

17, 426 
Sappho (saf'o), 89 
Sardinia (sar-din'i-d), 363, 364 
Saxons (sak'sf^nz), 115, 171 
Saxony (sak'sfm-i), 217, 359 
Scandinavia (skan'di-na'vi-d), 291, 

344 
Schles wig-Hoist ein (shlas'viK-hoF- 

shtln), 361 
Schurz, Carl (shoorts, kiirl), 360, 375 
Scots (skotz), 171 
Scott, Sir Walter (skot), 481 
Semiramis (se-mlr'd-mis), 79 
Seneca (sen'e-kd), 91 
Senegal River (s6n'e-g610, 205 
Separatists (sep'd-ra-tists), 224, 249- 

250 
Sepoy Rebellion (se'poi), 273 
Sepoys, 270, 272-273 



PRONOUNCING INDEX OF NAMES 



503 



Serbia (sur'bi-d), 369, 393, 431, 433, 

451 
Seres (China) (ser'gs), 188 
Seven Years' War, 272, 275 
Shakespeare, WilHam (shak'sper), 8, 

9, 234, 480 
Shanghai (shang'ha'i), 409 
Shantung Peninsula (shan'toong'), 

411, 465 
Shelley, Percy Bysshe (shel'I, pur'si 

bish), 71 
Siberia (sl-be'ri-d), 396, 450 
Sidon (si'dwn), 64 
Silvanus (sil-va'niis), 96 
Sinn Fein (shin fan), 455, 456 
Sistine Chapel, Rome (sis'ten), 141 
Smith, John, 14 

Socrates (sok'rd-tez), 90, 93, 94, 100 
Solferino (sol'fe-re'no), 365 
Solomon (soro-mwn), 79, 187 
Sophocles (sof'o-klez), 89, 94 
South America, 11, 417-426 
Soviets (so-vi-etz'), 446, 447 
Spain (span), 19, 282, 284, 379; rise 

of, 169-171 ; leader in commerce, 

264 
Spanish Succession, War of (span'- 

ish), 279 
Sparta (spar'td), 48, 93 
Spencer, Herbert (spen'ser), 477 
Stanley, Henry M. (stan'h), 413-414 
Stephenson, George (ste'ven-sun), 

330 
Stone Ages, 27-28 
Strabo (stra'bo), 201 
Sudan (soo'diin'), 417 
Suez Canal (s6o-ez'), 417 
Sully, Duke of (sul'i), 485 
Sumatra (sob-ma 'trd), 208, 268 
Sweden (swe'den), 20, 219, 344 
Switzerland (swit'zer-ldnd), 20, 281 



Tacitus (tas'i-tMs), 91, 149 

Taj Mahal (taj md-hal'), 269 

Terminus (tur'mi-nus), 97 

Texas (tek'sds), 208 

Thames River (temz), 268 

Thebes (thebz), 44, 48, 64 

Thirty Years' War, 228 

Tiber River (ti'ber), 51 

Tigris River (tl'gris), 64 

Tocqueville, Alexis de (tok'vil, d- 

lek'sis de), 16 
Toscanelli (tos'kd-nel'i), 200 
Trafalgar (traf'al-gar'), 283 
Trevithick, Richard (trev'i-thik), 330 
Triple Alliance, 427 
Trotzky, Leon (trots'ki, le'un), 448 
Tunis (tu'nis), 416 
Turkey (tur'ki), 368-370, 453, 455; 

and World War, 432 
Tyre (tir), 64 

United States, 290, 292, 299-300, 
305-308, 314, 316; pohcy toward 
China, 412-413 ; and World War, 
433-434; after World War, 460- 
462 ; refusal of, to join League of 
Nations, 439, 486. See also Amer- 
ica 

Ute Indians (ut), 34 

Utica (u'ti-kd), 64 

Valera, Eamonn de(vd-la'rd, e'd-mi^n), 

455 
Venetia (ve-ne'shi-d), 363, 365, 366 
Venezuela (ven'e-zwe'ld), 423 
Venice (v6n'is), 139, 140, 147, 151- 

152, 193, 196, 198, 363 
Venus (ve'nws), 96 
Vergil (ver'jil), 90, 149 
Verona (ve-ro'nd), 419 
Versailles (ver'sa'y'), 293, 294, 361 



504 



PRONOUNCING INDEX OF NAMES 



Vespucci, Amerigo (ves-poot'che, ii'- 

ma-re'go), 206 »i 
Vesta (ves'td), 96, 98 
Vesuvius, Mt. (ve-su'vi-fis), 342 
Victor Emmanuel II (vik'tor e-man'- 

u-el), 364-366, 388 
Victor Emmanuel III, 388 
Victoria, Queen of England (vik-to'- 

ri-d), 273, 385-386, 481 
Vienna (ve-en'd), 317 
Virginia (ver-jin'i-d), 14, 255 
Virginia, University of, 9 
Virgin Islands (ver'jin), 17, 426 
Voltaire (vol'tar'), 297 
Vulgate (vul'gat), 232 

Wales (walz), 330 

Washington, D. C. (wosh'ing-tzin), 
international conference of 1921- 
22 at, 20, 464, 486 ; National Mu- 
seum at, 34, 35 
Washington, George, 1, 7, 299, 302, 

307 
Waterloo (wo'ter-loo'), 285, 314, 379 
Watt, James (wot), 326-327, 328, 329 
Webster, Daniel (web'ster), 8 
Wei-Hai-Wei (wa'hi'wa'), 411 
Wellington, Duke of (wel'mg-tun), 314 



West Indies (in'diz), 17, 266, 285 
Wilham II of Germany (wirydm), 

392, 423, 427-428; downfall of, 

434, 445 
William III of England (Prince of 

Orange), 253-254, 268, 278, 279 
William the Conqueror, 174-176, 180 
Williams, Roger (wil'ydmz), 224 
Wilson, Woodrow (wil'sun, wood'rd), 

19, 354, 426, 434, 435, 436, 451, 

453, 485 
Winchester, Eng. (win'ches-ter), 151 
Windward Islands (wind'werd), 426 
Winthrop, John (win'thrf/p), 242 
Wittenberg (wit'en-burg), 217 
Wolfe, General (woolf), 280 
World War (wurld wor), 18-19, 354, 

366, 371-372, 392, 393, 396, 426- 

439 
Wurtemburg (wlir'tem-burg), 359 
Wyclif, John (wik'lif), 215, 232 

York, Eng. (york), 151 

Yorktown (york'toun), 1 

Young Italy, 364 

Yugoslavia (yu'go-sla'vi-d), 451, 453 

Zeus (zus), 96, 100 



W 82 







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